Kwok-Yung Lo Paul A

Kwok-Yung Lo Paul A. Vanden Bout, and Anneila I. Sargent

Citation: Physics Today 70, 8, 71 (2017); doi: 10.1063/PT.3.3669 View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.3669 View Table of Contents: http://physicstoday.scitation.org/toc/pto/70/8 Published by the American Institute of Physics

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San Diego, California interferometry (VLBI) studies of H2O of the most important radio astronomy Laurence I. Gould and OH maser-emission regions. He also projects around the globe expanded re- University of Hartford led the first VLBI effort to detect compact markably. In 1998 Fred was elected as West Hartford, Connecticut structure in Sagittarius A*, the radio an ASIAA academician and appointed William Happer source associated with the supermassive as a professor of physics at the National Princeton University black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Taiwan University. Princeton, New Jersey His numerous other VLBI studies of Fred became director of the National Sgr A* involved many collaborators. Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO)  At Caltech’s Owens Valley millimeter- in September 2002 and served until May wave array, Fred was instrumental in 2012. During his tenure, the NRAO com- refining its science goals, testing the pleted the rebuilding of the 1970s-era array, and conducting the first observa- Very Large Array as the much more Kwok-Yung Lo tions as it began operation. He led the powerful Karl G. Jansky Very Large adio astronomer and physicist team that produced the first millimeter- Array. At the same time, coordinating Kwok-Yung “Fred” Lo was born on wave interferometric map of carbon with international partners, Fred man- R19 October 1947 in Nanjing, China. dioxide emission from another galaxy, aged the North American share of both The third of six sons, he grew up in Hong IC 342. At the same time, working with the construction of the Atacama Large Kong, where his father had moved his Mark Claussen, he was the first to sug- Millimeter/Submillimeter Array and the antique business in 1949 in search of gest that the luminous water maser emis- startup of its science operations. better opportunities. Fred came to the US sion from external galaxies is circum- Starting in 2014, Fred became an ad- in 1965 to attend MIT, where he earned nuclear, is affiliated with active galactic viser to Astron Solutions Corp, a com- his BS in 1969 and a PhD in 1974, both nuclei, and could serve as a high- pany founded by Frank Shu that aims in physics. His thesis, titled “Interstellar resolution probe of those nuclei. Their to mitigate climate change by using microwave radiation and early stellar insights became the foundation for the molten-salt technology. Having grown evolution,” was supervised by radio Megamaser Cosmology Project. up in Hong Kong, Fred had many astronomer Bernard Burke. Fred joined the University of Illinois friends and influential contacts in both Fred’s postdoctoral years were spent at Urbana-Champaign’s (UIUC’s) astron- the academic and private sectors; he was in California, first at Caltech starting in omy department as a full professor in especially effective in connecting Astron 1974 and then as a Miller Fellow at the 1986. There he established a millimeter to potential research and commercial University of California, Berkeley, in and submillimeter receiver laboratory in partners. With a ready smile and a cheer- 1976. He returned to Caltech as a senior collaboration with UIUC’s solid-state- ful demeanor, Fred was welcome wher- research fellow in 1978, and he was ap- physics program. That partnership pro- ever he went. pointed as an assistant professor of as- duced the first superconductor-insulator- Although he often began the day with tronomy in 1980. Fred’s wide-ranging re- superconductor junctions used in the Tai Chi, Fred was more given to action search interests included cosmology, the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association than meditation. He was a continual galactic center, megamasers, star forma- millimeter array. A similar UIUC– source of ideas and grew impatient tion, and starbursts. With Burke and oth- University of Chicago collaboration led when they were not promptly achieved. NATIONAL RADIO ASTRONOMY OBSERVATORY to the development of novel receivers for You knew where you stood with Fred, the South Pole Telescope. Later, as chair what he thought, and why. Even though of the astronomy department, and con- he pushed his colleagues hard, no one scious of a critical need to increase inter- questioned his motivation—excellence est in astronomy among freshman stu- in science. He would ask piercing ques- dents, Fred developed a course in which tions during meetings and discussions, students visited professors’ homes to but in private—particularly with younger discuss hot topics in astronomy and researchers—he would patiently pro- astrophysics in an informal atmosphere. vide clarification. Sadly, he had no time He was also aware of the benefits of to pursue his long-held dream of uniting greater diversity and made considerable all the major observatories of pan-Pacific efforts to increase the representation of countries into one international organi- women on the UIUC faculty. zation. Fred died on 16 December 2016 Fred left UIUC for Taiwan in 1990 to in Charlottesville, Virginia, of complica- join the core group that founded what tions from lung cancer. became the Academia Sinica Institute of Paul A. Vanden Bout Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA). National Radio Astronomy Observatory Among its other cofounders were Paul Charlottesville, Virginia Ho, Typhoon Lee, Frank Shu, and Chi Anneila I. Sargent Yuan. Fred was deeply committed to the California Institute of Technology Kwok-Yung Lo institute and served as its director from Pasadena, California 1997 to 2002. During his leadership of 

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