Dutch honour for retired Irish-born astronomer who ran Leiden Observatory

DUBLIN-BORN astronomer Professor George K Miley, has been named a Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion, the Netherlands’ highest public distinction.

A pioneer in radio astronomy, Professor Miley (left in photograph) was director of Leiden Observatory, the oldest operating university observatory in the world, from 1996 until he retired in 2003. Prior to that, he worked at the Space Science Institute at Johns Hopkins University in the US, and at the UK’s Jodrell Bank observatory.

A member of the Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences, he is best known in Holland as a driving force behind the €100 million Westerbork synthesis radio telescope, the largest and most powerful of its type in the world.