Alexander Dalgarno | |
|---|---|
 Alex Dalgarno (© photo by:Lisa Bastille) | |
| Born | (1928-01-05)5 January 1928 London, England |
| Died | 9 April 2015(2015-04-09) (aged 87) |
| Scientific career | |
| Doctoral advisor | |
| Doctoral students | |
Alexander DalgarnoFRS[1] (5 January 1928 – 9 April 2015) was aBritishphysicist who was a Phillips Professor of Astronomy atHarvard University.[2]
Alexander Dalgarno was born in London in 1928, and spent his childhood there.[3] He was educated in mathematics and atomic physics atUniversity College, London, earning aPh.D. intheoretical physics in 1951 under the joint supervision ofHarrie Massey andRichard Buckingham.[4] He was an academic at theQueen's University, Belfast from 1951 to 1967 where he worked with SirDavid Bates and rose from assistant lecturer to professor. In the 1950s, he laid the foundations for long-range atomic interaction studies which are of critical importance for today's interest inBose–Einstein condensates.
In 1967, he moved toHarvard University to join their department of astronomy and held the positions of acting director ofHarvard College Observatory, chairman of the department of astronomy, associate director of theCenter for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and director of theInstitute for Theoretical Atomic and Molecular Physics. Dalgarno's research covered three main areas: theoretical atomic andmolecular physics,astrophysics andaeronomy (the study of the upper atmosphere). He made contributions intheoretical chemistry,scattering theory,atmospheric physics &chemistry andastrophysics and was the author of more than 600 publications.Sir David Bates wrote in 1988 that "There is no greater figure than Alex in the history of atomic physics and its applications." Known as the "father ofmolecular astrophysics", Dalgarno was also a physicist at theSmithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and was formerly the editor of theAstrophysical Journal Letters.
Dalgarno was also cited in theNebula Award winning novelThe Quantum Rose byCatherine Asaro, a science-fiction novel based on Asaro's doctoral work while she was a Ph.D. student with Dalgarno.
He married Barbara Kane, from whom he was later divorced, and had four children. Later married to Emily Izsak - divorced.
His work was recognized by many awards, including the prize of theInternational Academy of Quantum Molecular Science, theDavisson-Germer Prize of theAmerican Physical Society (1980), theWilliam F. Meggers Award of theOptical Society of America (1986),[5] theGold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1986)[6] and theBenjamin Franklin Medal in Physics from theFranklin Institute (2013).[7]
He was a Fellow of theAmerican Geophysical Union and theAmerican Physical Society and a member of the U.S.National Academy of Sciences. He was elected aFellow of the Royal Society in 1972 and awarded their prestigiousHughes Medal in 2002. He was also a member of theInternational Academy of Quantum Molecular Science.
In 1998,Asteroid 6941 was named Asteroid Dalgarno.
