Nobel Prize Recipient. Sir Martin Ryle, a British radio astronomer, received notoriety after being awarded the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics. This was the first Noble Prize to be awarded in the category of astronomy research. He jointly shared the coveted award with his colleague Antony Hewish. Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that deals with the study of celestial objects at radio frequencies. The two men received the award, according to the Nobel Prize committee, "for their pioneering research in radio astrophysics: Ryle for his observations and inventions, in particular of the aperture synthesis technique, and Hewish for his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars." Born the second of five children, his father, John Ryle, was a physician , who was appointed to the first Chair of Social Medicine at Oxford University. His uncle, Gilbert Ryle, was a philosopher, author, and a professor at Christ Church at Oxford. His earliest education was at home with a private tutor. After graduating from Bradfield College, he began studies at Christ Church at Oxford College, graduating in 1939 with a degree in physics. He had participated in building the college's amateur radio station. During World War II, he worked with the Telecommunications Research Establishment to design antennas for radar equipment for the Royal Air Force. At the age of 23, he found himself in a leadership role of a devoted team, which was focused on a certain goal. He met Hewish during this time. After the war, he received a fellowship at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge. Changing his focus from military equipment to astronomy, his earliest researched centered around the sun, nearby stars, and sunspots. With him beginning to hate war, he ended in 1953 his association with the science advisory committee of the Ministry of Supply, which allocated equipment to the armed forces. His motto of "Our World is One" was a peaceful idealism, yet often did not match to the world's reality. In 1946 he and Derek Vonberg were the first to publish interferometric atomical measurements at radio wavelengths. While a university lecturer in physics at Trinity College at Cambridge starting in 1948, he was named a fellow of the college in 1949, director of the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory in 1957 and became professor of radio astronomy in 1959. His radio astronomy team at Cambridge catalogued their findings, producing the "Third Cambridge Catalogue" in 1959, which led to the discovery of the first quasi-stellar object or quasar. In the mid-1960s, he placed two telescopes on rails, which that at the maximum distance of 1 mile provided results comparable to a single telescope 1.6 km in diameter, leading to the discovery of the first pulsar by Hewish, a member of his team. This device was called the "One-Mile Telescope." After working hard for long hours, he was known for having frustrated outbursts. With numerous researchers around the world focused on radio astronomy or the new "Big Science", he began to study wind and energy. Looking back at his recommendations for energy, he was correct, such has turning from fossil fuel and not using plastics, yet he wanted the changes to occur instantly, which could not happen. Besides the Nobel Prize, he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1964, the Popov Medal of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences in 1971, and the Royal Medal of the Royal Society of London in 1973. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1952, was knighted in 1966, and succeeded Sir Richard Woolley as Astronomer Royal in 1972, serving until 1982. As the 12th Astronomer Royal, he was the first to not hold that position and the Director of the Royal Observatory Greenwich simultaneously. He received several honorary degrees and was a member of several learned societies, including the Soviet Academy of Sciences, the Danish Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1977, he had surgery for lung cancer, followed with a long battle with the disease and heart problems. Retiring in 1982, he died from lung cancer two years later. His papers are located at the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge University. In 1947, he married Ella Rowena Palmer, the sister-in-law of Sir Francis Graham-Smith, the astronomer who would succeed Ryle in 1982 as the 13th Royal Astronomer. Ryle and his wife had three children. In 1987 Sweden issued postage stamps honoring each astrophysicist, Ryle and Hewish. In 2009 he was among the Eminent Britons, who had postage stamps issued in their honor.