Milan Bursa

Czech Republic

1929-2019

Obituary:

Milan Burša, one of the most famous Czech geodesists, died on August 17, 2019 at the age of 90 in Dobruška, Czech Republic. We paid our last respects for him on August 23, 2019 in the same town.
Milan Burša was born in the family of a teacher on July 4, 1929 in the township of Bojanov, near Chrudim, Czech Republic. He finished primary school in Bojanov. After completing high school in 1948 in Hradec Králové, he went to study geodesy at the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU). In 1951 he won a scholarship to study physical geodesy at the Moscow Institute of Geodesy, Aerial Photography and Cartography (MIIGAiK). He graduated in 1955 at the Faculty of Astronomy and Geodesy. Thanks to his results he gained the opportunity to work as a scientific assistant at the Geophysical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Moscow, where he participated in aerial gravimetry. He was invited to study under Profs. A. A. Izotov and M. S. Molodensky. However by decision of the Czechoslovak authorities, he was ordered to a prompt return to Prague at the end of 1955. After his return to Czechoslovakia he started working in the Research Institute of Geodesy, Topography and Cartography (VÚGTK) in 1956.

In 1959, Milan Burša defended his Ph.D. thesis "Determination of Earth Ellipsoid Parameters", and in 1973 his doctoral thesis (DSc.) "Derivation of parameters of the Earth and Moon geodetic reference systems from satellite and terrestrial data". He worked in VÚGTK until the middle of 1974. Then he transfered to the Astronomical Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences where he was appointed a head of the newly established Department of Solar System Dynamics. He held this post until 1990. In the seventies he also co-operated with the Military Geographic Institute and since 1995 he renewed his engagement in military geodesy at the Military Topographic Institute in Dobruška. Since 1964 he introduced and lectured space geodesy at the CTU and he was appointed a professor of CTU in 1987.

In 1960 at the General Assembly of IAG in Helsinki, Milan Burša was one of the eight founder members of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) working group led by W. M. Kaula for formulating the theory of Stokes parameters to determine the gravitational field from the motion of Earth satellites. He was there also elected Secretary of Section V - Geoid, and remained in office until 1967. From 1971 to 1975 he served a Secretary of Section IV - Theoretical Geodesy, and from 1975 to 1979 he was its chairman. In 1983–1987 he became vice-president of IAG and also chairman of its special committee SC-3 of the basic astronomical-geodetic constant. He chaired the special study groups 5.99 "Tidal Friction and Earth Rotation" and 5.100 "Parameters Important for Astronomy, Geodesy and Geodynamics" (1987-1991). Altogether, he was a member of 21 different working groups of IAG, COSPAR and IAU, including the IAG Special Study Group SSG 4.191 - Theory of Basic Elevation Systems. He also headed the Global Geodesy Working Group on Satellite Altimetry in frame of the NATO / Partnership for Peace for modelling and creating a global altitude system.

Milan Burša was the editor-in-chief of Studia geophysica et geodaetica, and a member of the editorial boards of Bulletin of Astronomical Institutes of Czechoslovakia, Earth, Moon, and Planets, and Acta Geodaetica et Geophysica Hungarica. In 1984 he was elected a corresponding member of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences.

He contributed to the problems of the shape and gravity field of the Moon and other planets, the theory of Earth rotation and tidal effects on the development of the solar system. He dealt with the basic problems of geodynamics. He is the author of the theory of the effect of rotational deformations of the Earth's body on disturbances of the Earth's orbit. He prepared the recommended parameters of the triaxial ellipsoid for IAG. He began to determine the geoid potential, later known as W0. The initially academic problem later developed into a fundamental method for determining and unifying altitudes across the globe, as well as unifying time scales in astronomy.

His publishing activities are extraordinary and respectable. Milan Burša is the author or co-author of more than 450 scientific papers, mostly as a first author, and 15 books and textbooks, in English, Russian and Czech. Some of them were later translated into Russian. Today, more than a thousand citations of his works can be found. His most significant work was the three-volume textbook of space geodesy still in use today.

In his life he has received many foreign awards not least of which is the “Fellow of IAG”, or the Uppsala University Commemorative Medal. He has received 8 foreign medals (4 from the USSR, 3 from the former East Germany, 1 from Sweden).

Milan lived very simply, his only enjoyment was Pilsner beer and so various international and local activities were arranged in the Prague Lesser Town pub "U kocoura". But science was more than anything else to him, never paying attention to his personal benefits. A true research worker. In such a heavy workload there is usually no room for family life so his marriage ended in divorce. Afterwards, he had close association with his son, Milan. In the late nineties he moved to Dobruška where he lived with his friend, Irenka, who affectionately cared for him up to his dying hour.

Milan Burša excelled himself with his life's work among prominent world experts in geodesy. We shall honour his memory forever.

Zdislav Šíma
Cyril Ron