Richard Twiss was born in
Simla in
India but was educated in
England. He read
mathematics at
Cambridge, completing the
Mathematical Tripos with distinction, but his early contributions were to the theory of
radar and basic
electronics. His work in this area was included in the famous "five foot shelf"—a series of reference books in
electronic engineering compiled at
MIT that was the circuit designer's bible in the 1950s. He was awarded a
Doctor of Science degree by MIT in 1949. Twiss went on to help construct the
Narrabri Stellar Intensity Interferometer. Observations with the interferometer began in 1965. Measurements made between 1965 and 1974 were used to establish the temperature scale for stars hotter than the Sun and this scale is still in use. The intensity interferometer has a very poor signal-to-noise ratio compared to the classical "
Michelson" stellar interferometer. Twiss decided to pursue the Michelson alternative at the
National Physical Laboratory at
Teddington in the UK. John Davis worked with him for a short while on this project. When the
Royal Observatory, Edinburgh established its outstation at
Monte Porzio Catone just south of
Rome, Twiss decided to move his Michelson interferometer there. Not only was the weather more conducive to astronomy, the food and wine were much superior to what was available in Teddington!
Speckle interferometry was discovered during that period by
Antoine Labeyrie. This stimulated a renewed interest around the world in interferometry. In particular, John Davis and Hanbury Brown became convinced that a Michelson interferometer would be cheaper to build and have superior performance to a new intensity interferometer. In the mid-1970s Twiss's non-scientific interests gradually took over and he effectively retired from active involvement in science. In the 1970s he made it clear that he regarded
Australia as a colonial backwater. His reaction when told that
William J. Tango was going to join Davis and Brown in Sydney was typical. "But William," he said, "they eat peas out of tins!" In spite of that, a few years before his death Twiss visited Australia and fell in love with it. In 2004 he applied for permanent residence. He died on 20 May 2005. He is mentioned in the book "Boffin : A Personal Story of the Early Days of Radar, Radio Astronomy and Quantum Optics" , by Hanbury Brown He was awarded the
Albert A. Michelson Medal of the
Franklin Institute in 1982, jointly with
Robert Hanbury Brown. == Twiss Parameters ==