Sir Martin Ryle died in Cambridge on 14 October 1984, aged 66. His development of radio telescopes and observational techniques made him a leading figure in British astronomy.

Ryle was born in Brighton in 1918 and studied physics at the University of Oxford. During the Second World War, he worked on radar countermeasures at the Telecommunications Research Establishment. His experience with radio equipment and aerials later contributed to his astronomical research.

After the war, Ryle joined the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge and helped establish radio astronomy as a major field of study. He developed interferometers that combined observations from separate aerials. This work led to aperture synthesis, a technique that could produce the resolving power of a much larger radio telescope.

Ryle’s research group conducted surveys of radio sources and developed increasingly powerful instruments around Cambridge. He became the university’s first Professor of Radio Astronomy in 1959 and directed the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory from 1957 to 1982. He served as Astronomer Royal from 1972 to 1982.

In 1974, Ryle shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Antony Hewish for pioneering research in radio astrophysics. The award recognised Ryle’s observations and inventions, particularly aperture synthesis, while Hewish was honoured for his role in the discovery of pulsars.