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Session 35 - The Western Tradition (HAD).
Oral session, Monday, January 15
Salon del Rey Central, Hilton
Daniel Kirkwood was Professor of Mathematics at Indiana University from 1856 to 1886. His name is still known at the end of the 20th century for his discovery in 1866 of the "Kirkwood gaps" in the orbits of the minor planets between Mars and Jupiter.
This 25 minute videotape was orginally planned to celebrate the centennial of the Dedication of Kirkwood Hall on January 25, 1895, four and a half months before Kirkwood's death on June 11. The centerpiece is the reading by Professor Richard Burke of the speech given by the President of the I.U. Board of Trustees at the Dedication. Morton Lowengrub, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences speaks about Daniel Kirkwood at the beginning of the video. George Walker, Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School, describes the action of the Board of Trustees on June 14, 1895 to create the Department of Mechanics and Astronomy. (Mechanics was dropped from the name in 1915.) He says it is fitting that the Department is beginning its second century with the start of scheduled operation of the shared WIYN Telescope on Kitt Peak, and concludes with a statement about Daniel Kirkwood.
