Allan Sandage

American astronomer and scientist who developed the theory of a continually expanding and contracting universe. His research led him to theorize that the universe was at least 25 billion years old and went through a series of periods of 80 billion years. Sandage was the astronomer for Mt. Wilson Observatory 1952, moving to Santa Barbara 1952-1956, becoming the staff astronomer in 1956 at Hale Observatory. In 1963 he made significant discoveries and was honored with awards. He achieved his PhD in 1953.

Sandage married in 1959, they had two sons. Suffering from pancreatic cancer, he died on 13 November 2010 at age 84 at his home in San Gabriel, California.