1930 in science

The year 1930 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy and space exploration

January 15 – The Moon moves into perigee at the same time as the lunar phase reaches its fullest. This is the closest Moon distance to Earth in 23 years and it will not come closer until 2257.
February 18 – Pluto is identified by Clyde Tombaugh from photographs taken during January at the Lowell Observatory.
Bernhard Schmidt invents the Schmidt Camera.

Atmospheric sciences

January 30 – Pavel Molchanov launches a radiosonde from Pavlovsk in the Soviet Union.
Sydney Chapman explains the ozone-oxygen cycle, the process by which ozone is continually regenerated in Earth's stratosphere.

Botany

Elena Ivanovna Barulina produces the first study of the international distribution of lentils.

Chemistry

April 17 – Neoprene is invented by DuPont.

History of science

Soviet Orientalist Vasily Vasilievich Struve, with Boris Turaev, provides solutions to the problems in the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus.
The University of Florence in Italy creates the Istituto di Storia della Scienza con annesso Museo, predecessor of the Museo Galileo.
The Edwin Smith Papyrus, an ancient Egyptian medical text, is translated for the first time.

Mathematics

Vojtěch Jarník first discovers 'Prim's algorithm'.
Kazimierz Kuratowski characterizes his planar graph theorem.
Bartel van der Waerden publishes Moderne Algebra.

Medicine

March 5 – Danish painter Einar Wegener begins to undergo sexual reassignment surgery in Germany and takes the name Lili Elbe.
July 10 – Mental Treatment Act 1930 in the United Kingdom provides for free voluntary treatment for psychiatric conditions and for psychiatric outpatient clinics, replaces the term "asylum" with "mental hospital" and reorganises the Board of Control for Lunacy and Mental Deficiency.
November 25 – Cecil George Paine, a pathologist at the Sheffield Royal Infirmary in England, achieves the first recorded cure using penicillin.
DPT vaccine is first used.

Physics

December 4 – Wolfgang Pauli postulates the existence of the particle later identified as the electron neutrino.

Technology

August 18 – Salginatobel Bridge in Switzerland, designed by Robert Maillart, opened.
November 13 – Rotolactor rotating platform milking machine first operates.

Zoology

Israel Aharoni collects golden hamsters near Aleppo from which all modern domesticated specimens will be bred.

Awards

Lyell Medal – Frederick Chapman
Nobel Prizes
* Physics – C. V. Raman
* Chemistry – Hans Fischer
* Physiology or Medicine – Karl Landsteiner

Births

January 9 – Jacob T. Schwartz, American mathematician and professor of computer science at the New York University Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
January 13 – Harold Furth, Austrian-born expert in plasma physics and nuclear fusion.
January 20 – Buzz Aldrin, American astronaut, lunar module pilot on Apollo 11.
February 7 – Ikutaro Kakehashi, Japanese electronic music engineer.
February 23 – Goro Shimura, Japanese mathematician.
February 28 – Leon Cooper, American physicist and Nobel Prize winner.
March 7 – Daphne Osborne, British botanist.
March 15 – Martin Karplus, Austrian-born theoretical chemist and Nobel Prize winner.
April 9 – Nathaniel Branden, Canadian American psychotherapist.
April 16 – Louis Herman, American marine biologist, investigator in animal communication.
April 20 – Gordon Hamilton Fairley, British oncologist.
May 9 – Susan Leeman, American neuroendocrinologist.
May 11 – Edsger W. Dijkstra, Dutch computer scientist.
May 28 – Frank Drake, American radio astronomer, pioneer in SETI
June 2 – Pete Conrad, American astronaut.
June 22 – Yury Artyukhin, Soviet Russian cosmonaut.
June 28 – William C. Campbell, Irish-born parasitologist and Nobel Prize winner.
August 5 – Neil Armstrong, American astronaut, first person to walk on the Moon.
August 7 – Joe Farman, British geophysicist working for the British Antarctic Survey.
September 7 – Yuan Longping, Chinese agronomist.
September 12 – Akira Suzuki, Japanese chemist and Nobel Prize winner.
September 24 – John Young, American astronaut.
October 10 – Yves Chauvin, Belgian-born chemist and Nobel Prize winner.
October 17 – Robert Atkins, American nutritionist.
October 27 – Gladys West, née Gladys Mae Brown, African American mathematician.
October 31 – Michael Collins, American astronaut.
November 11 – Mildred Dresselhaus, née Spiewak, American nanotechnologist.
November 14 – Ed White, American astronaut.
December 17 – Dorothy Rowe, née Conn, Australian psychologist.
December 30
* Roy Yorke Calne, English surgeon, pioneer of transplantation.
* Tu Youyou, Chinese pharmaceutical chemist and Nobel Prize winner.

Deaths

January 13 – Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti, British-born electrical engineer and inventor.
January 19 – Frank P. Ramsey, English mathematician.
August 6 – Joseph Le Bel, French chemist.
August 15 – Florian Cajori, Swiss-born American historian of mathematics.
August 18 – Gabrielle Howard, British plant physiologist.
October 15
* Herbert Henry Dow, Canadian American industrial chemist.
* E. H. "Chinese" Wilson, English plant collector.
September 1 – Peeter Põld, Estonian politician and pedagogical scientist.
October 27 – Ellen Hayes, American mathematician and astronomer.
November 5 – Christiaan Eijkman, Dutch physiologist.
December 25 – Albertina Carlsson, Swedish zoologist.