| Citation | K.C. Freeman is distinguished for his work on the dynamics of galaxies and on dark matter in and around them. While still a student he made the first detailed models of barred galaxies. He went on to give the standard model of exponential disks of normal galaxies and these are commonly called Freeman disks. He pointed out that the central surface brightness is the same for a wide variety of spiral galaxies of different types so the different disks are almost a one parameter sequence based on the scale length. He was the first to show that the circular velocity curve corresponding to an exponential was flat, i.e. constant over a considerable range of radius. This seems to be the first time that flat rotation curves were mentioned in literature. Freeman's studies of these rotation curves to large distances using both optical and radio observations have done much to tie down the distribution of dark matter in galaxies. His work with students on dwarf galaxies and on the kinematics of the halo of the Milky Way has led the field. Likewise work on the spread of metal abundances in the globular cluster Omega Centauri broke the mould by demonstrating that not all stars in a cluster have the same chemistry. He strongly backed the renovating of the old Melbourne 50-inch telescope for the MACHO project which he played a full part. It has revolutionised both the study of both dark matter and the mass distribution in the Milky Way. |