Bengt Westerlund (January 17, 1921 - June 4, 2008)[1][2] was a Swedish astronomer who specialised in observational astronomy.
He received his PhD from Uppsala University in 1954.[2] In 1957 he was appointed astronomer at the Uppsala Southern Station at Mount Stromlo Observatory in Australia, where he made extensive studies of the southern Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds.[1] In 1967 he took a position as astronomer at Steward Observatory in Arizona and in 1969 was appointed Director of ESO in Chile, a position he held until 1975, when he returned to Sweden to become Professor of Astronomy at Uppsala Astronomical Observatory, retiring in 1987.[2]