But his true vocation is not there, it was astronomy, and while performing his official duties as a civil engineer he joined volunteers at the Uccle Observatory.

He and his family made the dangerous trip across wartime Europe and settled permanently in the United States.

[4] He participated in numerous physically grueling astronomical expeditions to remote parts of the world throughout the late 1940s and 1950s.

In 1952, at age 72, he traveled to Khartoum in Sudan and set up a 20' telescope to confirm Einstein's Theory of Relativity by noting the change in positions of the stars around the Sun during a total eclipse that year.

There he used his practical skills as a land surveyor to site the new Catalina Station now under the direction of Steward Observatory and that now houses the 1.6m Kuiper Telescope.

The George Van Biesbroeck Prize, awarded by the American Astronomical Society, is named in his honor.

The prize is a lifetime achievement award given to astronomers who have contributed long-term extraordinary or unselfish service to astronomy.