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U.Porto Memory

University of Porto Famous Alumni

Manuel de Barros

Manuel de Barros 1908-1971 Engineer, astronomer, mathematician and university teacher

«Thirty years ago, as a student of Astronomy at the University of Porto, I learned from Professor Manuel de Barros to observe the far
off starts in the reticules of instruments, and they began to shine to me as they had done in the poems by Guerra Junqueiro and Olavo
Bilac. And I learned that it is so wonderful, like the world recreated in beauty, by the artists and the poets, the real world of science, where
distances are measures in light-years. Finite or infinite distances that only death can conquer. Because, as Augusto de Castro says, "Death
is the only distance that brings men closer"»
(Posthumous eulogy in honour of Professor Manuel de Barros, by Paulo Pombo, his former student, in the newspaper "O Primeiro
de Janeiro", on 17 February 1971)

Manuel Gonçalves Pereira de Barros was born in Esposende on 29 May 1908. He was the son of João Gonçalves Pereira de Barros and Etelvina de Barros Lima.
He went to secondary school between 1920 and 1927 at the Sá de Miranda High School, in Braga, which he completed with the final mark of 17 out of 20.

He attended the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, , where he studied Mathematical Sciences and completed the degree in 1931 with a final mark of 17. He took the preparatory courses and the Civil Engineering course (1931-1934), with the final mark of 15, and obtained the Doctorate Degree in 1944.

On 17 November 1931, he was invited for the position of Extraordinary Assistant of the 1^st Group of the Mathematical Sciences Department at that faculty, and thus began a remarkable teaching career. The appointment for this position was certified on 18 February 1932.
In 1933, he was hired as Assistant of the 2^nd Group of the Mathematics Department, and in 1934 he became Assistant in that group after a competition based on qualifications, and in 1938 and 1841 he was reappointed for the position.
In 1945, he rose to the position of 1^st Assistant, in charge of the Chair of the theory courses of Accurate Drawing (1935-1936), Drawing applied to Biological Sciences (1935-1937), Machinery Drawing (1936-1937 and 1942-1943), Improvement of Astronomy (1937-1938 and 1961-1962), Astronomy (1952-1953 and 1961-1962), Topography (1956-1958) and Geodesy (1960-1962).
In 1957, he competed for the position of Extraordinary Professor of the 2^nd Group of the Mathematics Department of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, and was approved unanimously on 23 January 1960. He took up the post on 15 February. In that year, he earned the title of Tenured Professor of Mechanics and Astronomy.

He received many scholarships in the course of his career, for example, from the Institute for Advanced Culture, one of them to work at the Astronomical Observatory of Uccle, Brussels, but it was cancelled by the Faculty of Sciences, who refused to let him leave due to the outbreak of the Second World War, and a second scholarship to train at the Greenwich Observatory (between October and November 1946), where he met Dr. R. d’E. Atkinson.

He was also involved in other activities related to Astronomy. He competed and was approved for the position of 2^nd Class Astronomer of the Lisbon Astronomical Observatory (1937), and for the position of Director of the João Capelo Observatory in Luanda (1942), where he came in first, although he gave up the appointment.
In 1948, he was a member of the Portuguese Section of the International Astronomical, Geodesy and Geophysics Unions. He participated in the 7^th, 8^th, 9^th and 11^th general meetings of the International Astronomical Union, held in Zurich (1944), Rome (1952), Dublin (1955) and Berkeley (1961), respectively. Through his commitment to the technological development of the Meridian Circle of Mirror (1957), he collaborated with several Astronomical Observatories, namely Greenwich, Pulkovo and Ottawa, where he worked in September 1961.

He founded and directed until 1968 the Astronomy Observatory, built in Vila Nova de Gaia, in Alameda do Monte da Virgem, a location visited and approved in 1943 by the British Royal Astronomer Sir Harold Spencer Jones. Here he coordinated the installation of the equipment and designed astronomy instruments, for example a zygometer and an examiner of micrometers, no references of which have been found.
He presented many speeches at the Luso-Spanish Congress for the Advancement of Sciences, held in Porto in June 1942, which were published in the following year in Volume III of the proceedings of the 4^th Congress of the Portuguese Association for the Advancement of Sciences: "Um aparelho para a determinação da equação pessoal nas observações meridianas de hora", "Dispositivo para movimento mecânico dum micrómetro registador", "As coordenadas do observatório da Serra do Pilar", "Sobre o projecto do Observatório astronómico da Faculdade de Ciências do Porto".

Manuel de Barros published in 1944 a PhD dissertation on "Registo fotográfico das observações meridianas" [The photographic record of meridian observations], in which he analysed a photographic micrometer for the meridian circle of the Faculty of Sciences, which, however, was not built; he edited scientific papers in the conference proceedings of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, namely: "Small transit instrument without pivot errors" (Volume XLI, p.5), "A teoria do instrumento de passagens" (Volume XLII, p.137) and "On the flexure of a transit instrument" (Volume XLIII, p.113), in addition to the dissertation presented for the competition for the position of Extraordinary Professor of the Porto ("O círculo meridiano da Faculdade de Ciências do Porto").
Born in Esposende, and therefore quite accustomed to the sea, he was also interested in naval construction drawing, designing boats for his hometown.

During the last years of his life, he continued to contribute to the modernization of the equipment for the observatory and for the study of Astrophysics, preparing, for that purpose, a course in that field at the University of Porto, and organizing the "Summer Institute on Stellar Evolution and Variable Stars". The scientific direction of this summer course was in charge of the Royal Astronomer Sir Richard Woolley and was funded by OTAN. It was held in Ofir, in September 1970, at a time when Manuel de Barros already suffered from an incurable disease. A few days after delivering his opening speech, he was admitted to hospital and died in Porto on 31 January 1971.

The scientist and teacher, who dedicated his life to the development of Astronomy in Portugal, was a much respected and admired man. After his death, the observatory he helped create was named after him.
(Universidade Digital / Gestão de Informação, 2010)