John N Bahcall (1934 2005)

Details John N Bahcall (1934 2005) John N Bahcall (1934 2005)

Jan 2005

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005phst..121....7b&link_type=abstract

Physica Scripta, Volume T121, pp. 7 (2005).

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Scientific paper

John Norris Bahcall, passed away on August 17, 2005, in NewYork City, USA. He was born on December 30, 1934, in Shreveport, Louisiana, USA. He was Richard Black Professor of Astrophysics in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute forAdvanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey, USA and a recipient of the National Medal of Science. In addition, he was President of the American Astronomical Society, President-Elect of the American Physical Society, and a prominent leader of the astrophysics community.
John had a long and prolific career in astronomy and astrophysics, spanning five decades and the publication of more than five hundred technical articles, books, and popular papers.
John's most recognized scientific contribution was the novel proposal in 1964, together with Raymond Davis Jr, that scientific mysteries of our Sun `how it shines, how old it is, how hot it is' could be examined by measuring the number of neutrinos arriving on Earth from the Sun. Measuring the properties of these neutrinos tests both our understanding of how stars shine and our understanding of fundamental particle physics.
However, in the 1960s and 1970s, the observations by Raymond Davis Jr showed a clear discrepancy between John's theoretical predictions, based on standard solar and particle physics models, and what was experimentally measured. This discrepancy, known as the `Solar Neutrino Problem', was examined by hundreds of physicists, chemists, and astronomers over the subsequent three decades. In the late 1990s through 2002, new large-scale neutrino experiments in Japan, Canada, Italy, and Russia culminated in the conclusion that the discrepancy between John's theoretical predictions and the experimental results required a modification of our understanding of particle physics: neutrinos must have a mass and `oscillate' among different particle states.
In addition to neutrino astrophysics, John contributed to many areas of astrophysics including the study of dark matter in the Universe, properties of quasars, structure of the galaxies, the evolution of stars, and the identification of the first neutron star companion.
John was an active member of the International Advisory Committee of the Nobel Symposium 129 on Neutrino Physics in Enköping, Sweden between August 19 and August 24, 2004, but he was unfortunately not able to attend the Symposium himself due to his illness. He will be hugely missed in the scientific community and especially among neutrino physicists. We, the members of the Local Organizing Committee of the Symposium, will always remember his large enthusiasm and creativity, warm friendship, and sharp intellect.

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