From 1932 to 1960, he served as the Savilian Professor of Astronomy at the University of Oxford, and in 1963 was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society.
His parents were Rebecca Hemley and John Stanley Plaskett, who at the time was working as a machinist in the Department of Physics at the University of Toronto, but who would later go on to become the first director of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria, and a Gold Medal winner in his own right.
[2] Following this, and a year spent working with Professor Alfred Fowler at Imperial College, he returned to Canada, and was appointed to the staff of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria, B.C.
His time at Oxford was interrupted by war service: from 1939 to 1940, he was an anti-aircraft officer, and from 1940 to 1944 he worked on experimental navigation for the Ministry of Aircraft Production.
[5] He retired from Oxford in 1960, becoming a Professor Emeritus of the university, but remained active in astronomical research almost until the end of his life.