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William Wallace Campbell (11 April 1862 – 14 June 1938) was an American astronomer, and director of Lick Observatory from 1900 to 1930. He specialized in spectroscopy.
Campbell was a pioneer of astronomical spectroscopy, he catalogued the radial velocities of stars, and was a director of Lick Observatory from 1901 to 1930. He served as 10th President of the University of California from 1923 to 1930.
He led a team to Australia in 1922 where he photographed a solar eclipse. The data obtained provided further evidence supporting Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.
He committed suicide at the age of 76. He was mostly blind and suffering from bouts of aphasia. This was not only very frustrating to him, but he felt that it left him a burden to his family in terms of care and expense, according to notes he left behind at the time of his death.
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