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Gerry Gilmore

Professor of Experimental Philosophy, in the Institute of Astronomy, at the University of Cambridge

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ20064984
Source-derived summary

Gerard Francis Gilmore (born 7 November 1951) is a New Zealand academic who is Emeritus Professor of Experimental Philosophy, in the Institute of Astronomy, at the University of Cambridge. His research has centred on studying stars in the Galaxy to understand its structure and evolutionary history.

Education

Gilmore was educated at St Bede's College, Christchurch and the University of Canterbury (both in New Zealand), where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1973.

Gilmore remained at the University of Canterbury as a postgraduate research student. He used the 0.61-metre telescope at Mount John University Observatory to monitor changes in the brightnesses of quasars in the southern hemisphere of the sky. He measured the magnitudes of about 130 quasars from a large number of photographic plates. He found the results were best explained by the infall of gas on to supermassive black holes. This research led to the award of a PhD degree in 1979.

Royal Observatory, Edinburgh

Gerry Gilmore worked as a research fellow at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, Scotland, between 1979 and 1984. He used the expertise gained during his PhD to measure brightnesses and numbers of stars from photographic sky surveys.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Gerry Gilmore” as professor of Experimental Philosophy, in the Institute of Astronomy, at the University of Cambridge. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Gerry, Gilmore and Professor.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1951, 1973, 1979, 1984—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1951-11-07. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Gerry, Gilmore and Professor providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Gerry Gilmore”, the useful work is to connect “professor of Experimental Philosophy, in the Institute of Astronomy, at the University of Cambridge” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q20064984. VIAF identifies the subject as 109236657. The Library of Congress control number is n86116354. 2 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1951, 1973, 1979 and 1984.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Gerry Gilmore” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.