Winslow Upton | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | October 12, 1853 Salem, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | January 8, 1914 (aged 60) Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Brown University, University of Cincinnati |
| Spouse | Cornelia Augusta Babcock |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy, Meteorology |
| Institutions | Ladd Observatory |
| Doctoral students | Frederick Slocum |
Winslow Upton (October 12, 1853 – January 8, 1914) was an American astronomer.[1] He published extensively on the subject of meteorology.[2]
He received his undergraduate degree from Brown University and was valedictorian when he graduated in 1875.[1] Upton then worked as an assistant at Mitchel Observatory of the University of Cincinnati where he received his master's degree in 1877.[1] He later received an honorary doctorate from Brown in 1906.[3]
He became an assistant astronomer at the Harvard Observatory in 1877. During this time he wrote a parody of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore titled Observatory Pinafore.[4] Then he became an assistant engineer for the U. S. Lake Survey from 1879. In 1880 he was a computer at the U.S. Naval Observatory. He was a computer and assistant professor at the U.S. Signal Service in 1881.[5][6] He was appointed professor and head of the department of astronomy at Brown in 1884.[3] He then became director of Ladd Observatory when it opened in 1891.[7] During his tenure Upton also served as secretary of the faculty and dean at Brown.[2]
He was a member of the U. S. government eclipse expeditions of 1878 and 1883, also of two private expeditions sent out in 1887 and 1889, and in 1896-97 was attached to the southern station of Harvard University at Arequipa, Peru.[8] His systematic research studying meteorology during solar eclipses has been described as "pioneering."[9]
He married Cornelia Augusta Babcock in 1882 and they had two children. Eleanor Stuart Upton was a librarian at the John Carter Brown Library and Yale University Library. Margaret Frances Upton taught bacteriology. She was also a lab technician and research assistant at hospitals.[10]
Upton wrote a monthly astronomy column for the Providence Journal for twenty years.[3]
