- Paul Herget
Paul Herget (1908–1981) was an American
astronomer .Herget taught astronomy at the
University of Cincinnati . He was a pioneer in the use of machine methods, and eventually digital computers, in the solving of scientific and specifically astronomical problems (for example, in the calculation ofephemeris tables forminor planet s).During World War II he applied these same talents to the war effort, helping to locate U-boats by means of the application of spherical trigonometry.
Herget established the
Minor Planet Center at the university after the war in 1947. He was also named director of theCincinnati Observatory . The Minor Planet Center was eventually relocated in 1978 to theSmithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where it still operates.External links
* [http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/herget.html Paul Herget] at Columbia University Computing History
* [http://www.cincinnatiobservatory.org/COC/herget.htm Lecture by Paul Herget on the history of the Cincinnati Observatory]
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