Lyman Spitzer 1914–1997

OBITUARIES ried out sonar analysis at Columbia University Lyman Spitzer as a guide to anti-submarine tactics. After the Deaths of Fellows 1914–1997 war, he went back briefly to Yale and in 1947 he was invited to succeed Russell as Professor of Prof. J Wdowczyk yman Spitzer died on 31 March 1997 at Astronomy at Princeton. He accepted, and held Born 28 July 1935 the age of 82. He had a remarkably pro- the post until his formal retirement in 1982. Elected 11 April 1980 Lductive career that spanned quite diverse At Princeton he developed his theories of the Died 6 September 1996 areas of activity and led him to become one of interstellar medium, and the application of his Dr C P Gopalaraman the most influential American scientists of his great knowledge and understanding of physics Born 1 July 1938 time. His personal theoretical contributions to raised the subject to an exciting level. He Elected 13 May 1994 interstellar astronomy and to plasma physics quickly realized that observations of the inter- Died 3 September 1997 quickly established him as a world leader in each stellar gas were most important in the ultra- Mr S Bradford Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/astrogeo/article/38/6/36/194930 by guest on 24 September 2021 field. He was a pioneer in the opening up of violet where most of the resonance lines of the Born 28 February 1912 common elements lay. This led to a proposal Elected 14 April 1961 for an ultraviolet observatory satellite designed Died ? specifically to study the interstellar medium. Mr S W Milbourn This satellite was approved by NASA, and Born 5 September 1925 Copernicus was launched in 1972. It was a Elected 11 December 1959 great success; among many other things, it Died 24 August 1997 showed that molecular hydrogen was the dom- Dr J B Irwin inant form of the interstellar medium and it Born 7 July 1909 detected deuterium, the heavy isotope of Elected 13 October 1950 hydrogen. According to Big Bang theory, the Died 10 April 1997 abundance of deuterium is a sensitive indicator Mr H Gent of the (baryium) density of the universe; the Born 26 February 1922 Copernicus result gave a value of 10% of the Elected 8 December 1961 critical density, in agreement with estimates Died 7 October 1997 PRINCETON UNIVERSITY from visible matter plus gravitationally detect- Lyman Spitzer ed dark matter, implying an open universe. Spitzer’s contributions to plasma physics European JET at Culham, but a break-even sit- were major and seminal. They are summarized uation with energy out exceeding energy in has ultraviolet astronomy and in the first attempts in his book Physics of Fully Ionized Gases still not been achieved. Developments continue to generate power by thermonuclear fusion. (1962) which became a bible for all researchers in Russia and Japan but, sadly, funding for the Spitzer generated the earliest proposal for a in plasma physics. He recognized the immense Princeton programme is being terminated by Large Space Telescope which was ultimately to energy potential of a controlled thermonuclear the US Congress in the year that Spitzer died. be renamed the Hubble Space Telescope, but fusion reactor, converting hydrogen (in the I was fortunate to have met and interacted many astronomers, myself included, thought form of deuterium or tritium) into helium with Lyman Spitzer on a number of occasions that the original acronym (LST) should have which would provide humanity with an inex- over many years because of my own activities been retained as the Lyman Spitzer Telescope. haustible power supply. His proposal to do in fusion research and ultraviolet astronomy. Spitzer took his first degree in physics at Yale this, by heating hydrogen to the tens of million The last time I met him was at the admission and then went on to Cambridge for a year degrees existing in stellar interiors and confin- ceremony to mark his election as a foreign before going to Princeton to study astrophysics ing it in a magnetic field configuration, was member of the Royal Society in 1990. He was under the great Henry Norris Russell; he approved and the toroidal machine, which he as he always had been – charming, generous, received a PhD just before the outbreak of the called a “stellarator” was built in the 1950s. and modest, qualities which are not always Second World War. Like many other scientists, Developments in this area have continued ever present in our most brilliant scientists. he became embroiled in the war effort and car- since with the British ZETA at Harwell and the Robert Wilson. Guide to Authors ences, The University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 and state the number of words in your paper. Astronomy & Geophysics is a journal for the 9JT, Britain. Submission of a manuscript to Whatever submission route you choose, publication of serious scientific articles of A&G implies that the paper has not been Word6 files are preferred; otherwise plain interest to a broad range of astronomers and previously published, nor is it currently sub- ASCII or text-only formats. Authors should geophysicists. Contributions, subject to peer mitted for publication elsewhere. avoid unnecessary formatting. Copy in TeX review, take the form of Review Articles (up Electronic submission is preferred: send to and LaTeX is acceptable. Astronomy & Geo- to 5000 words), Articles (up to 3500 words), [email protected]. Submission on physics can also accept contributions on News and Correspondence (up to 600 words). disk is also welcome. Authors should also paper alone. On acceptance of a manuscript, Items for publication should be submitted send a printed copy (including figures) to the authors are required to transfer the copyright to the Editor, Dr Sue Bowler, Astronomy and above address, along with a covering letter. to the RAS. More details available at the RAS Geophysics, The Department of Earth Sci- Use double line spacing, give page numbers Web site: “http://www.ras.org.uk”. 36 December 1997 Vol 38 Issue 6.

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