Marian Albertovich Kowalski

Who was Marian Albertovich Kowalski?

Marian Albertovich Kowalski was a Polish-Russian astronomer. Sometimes his last name is given as Kovalsky or Koval'sky or Koval'skiy. In the scientific literature, his name was given as Kowalski or Kowalsky.

He was born in Dobrzyń nad Wisłą in Congress Poland, Russian Empire. His patronymic is alternatively given as Voytekhovich or Voytsekhovich, which suggests his father's name was Wojciech. Confusingly, a few Russian sources even give his name as Marian Albertovich Kovalsky-Voytekhovich, but this seems to be an error.

He graduated from St. Petersburg University in 1845. His PhD was in 1852 for his theory of the orbit of Neptune. Beginning in 1852 he was director of the Kazan Observatory, and dean of faculty of physics and mathematics in Kazan.

His most important work was on the analysis of the proper motion of 3,136 stars from James Bradley's catalog, which was the first usable method to deduce the rotation of the Milky Way galaxy. Based on this work, he disproved that a single massive central body in the center of our galaxy was responsible for the motion of the stars.