Rudolf Wolf and his legacy
Rudolf Wolf (1816–1893), astronomer and founder of the Eidgenössische Sternwarte (federal observatory), was born today 200 years ago. His broad academic interests, key discoveries, interdisciplinary exchange and diverse publishing and collecting activities still set him apart to this day.
Wolf celebrated his greatest academic successes as an astronomer. In 1852, he joined other scientists in describing the discovery of the connection between fluctuations of the Earth's magnetic field and sunspot activity, demonstrating that a sunspot cycle lasts at least eleven years. Wolf's international acclaim as an astronomer led to his appointment at the newly founded Polytechnic School (now ETH Zurich) in Zurich in 1855, where the architect Gottfried Semper constructed the Eidgenössische Sternwarte according to Wolf's specifications. It served Wolf and his successors as a basis for further solar research and observations.