{{Short description|English astronomer}} {{Use British English|date=March 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Peter Alan Sweet | image = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1921|05|15}} | birth_place = Beckenham, Kent, England | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2005|01|16|1921|05|15}} | death_place = Poole, Dorset, England | field = Astronomy<br />Mathematics | work_institutions = Ministry of Aircraft Production<br/>University of Glasgow | education = Kingsbury County Grammar School | alma_mater = Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge | doctoral_advisor = | doctoral_students = | known_for = Sweet–Parker model<br />Eddington–Sweet circulation | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | influences = | influenced = | prizes = | religion = | footnotes = | signature = | academic_advisors = Fred Hoyle }}
'''Peter Alan Sweet''' (15 May 1921 – 16 January 2005) was an English astronomer. He was Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Glasgow from 1959 until his retirement in 1982. He was also Dean of the Faculty of Science 1973–1975.
Under Sweet's stewardship, the Department of Astronomy grew from 3 to 17 permanent staff. Sweet undertook the building of a new University Observatory located at Acre Road, Glasgow which opened in 1967. The department offices were moved to the top floor of the then new Mathematics Building in University Gardens, within the main University campus.
Sweet was educated at Kingsbury County Grammar School and Wrangler 1942 on a Major Open Scholarship in Maths at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He worked as a Junior Scientific Officer at the Ministry of Aircraft Production from 1942 until the end of the World War II. He took a position as a lecturer in Astronomy at the University of Glasgow in 1947. He then moved to become Assistant Director of the University of London Observatory from 1952 until his appointment to the Regius Chair in Glasgow in 1959.
==References== {{Reflist}} * University of Glasgow Story [http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH2144&type=P Peter Sweet] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140306002228/http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH2144&type=P |date=6 March 2014 }} accessed 5 March 2014 * Obituary, The Independent Newspaper [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-professor-peter-sweet-1529752.html Professor Peter Sweet] accessed 5 March 2014
{{s-start}} {{s-aca}} {{succession box | title = Regius Professor of Practical Astronomy<br />at the University of Glasgow | before = William Marshall Smart | after = John Campbell Brown | years = 1959–1982 }} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sweet, Peter Alan}} Category:1921 births Category:2005 deaths Category:20th-century English astronomers Category:Academics of the University of Glasgow Category:Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Category:20th-century English mathematicians Category:People from Beckenham Category:Civil servants in the Ministry of Aircraft Production
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