Åke Wallenquist

Who was Åke Wallenquist?

Åke Anders Edvard Wallenquist was a Swedish astronomer. He worked at the Dutch Bosscha Observatory in Indonesia between 1928 and 1935, and became assistant professor at Uppsala's Kvistabergs Observatorium in 1948. He worked originally on double stars but it was the open star clusters and their properties that became his main area of research. Wallenquist was a very active member of both the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm and the Royal Swedish Society of Sciences in Uppsala. From the 1950s onwards, he was the leading writer of popular astronomy in Sweden among the professional astronomers. His books inspired generations of young people to become interested in astronomy.

Asteroid 2114 Wallenquist was named in his honour.