Eugene Parker has passed away

[notFritzArgelander]

https://phys.org/news/2022-03-visionary ... -dead.html

[Thefatkitty]

That's sad to hear... I was watching a documentary the other night on the Parker Solar Probe (I have this fascination with our star) and he was in the clean room with the engineers assembling it.
Then he got a great seat to watch it when it launched; in his words when it lifted off, "Bye-bye spacecraft"

He stuck to his guns, and I believe it was Mariner 2 going to Venus that finally confirmed the existence of the solar wind that he had hypothesised.

R.I.P. Eugene.

[notFritzArgelander]

That's sad to hear... I was watching a documentary the other night on the Parker Solar Probe (I have this fascination with our star) and he was in the clean room with the engineers assembling it.
Then he got a great seat to watch it when it launched; in his words when it lifted off, "Bye-bye spacecraft"

He stuck to his guns, and I believe it was Mariner 2 going to Venus that finally confirmed the existence of the solar wind that he had hypothesised.

R.I.P. Eugene.

He had the good sense to stick to his guns when physics and maths said that sticking was justified. I'm not a fan of sticking to your guns when observation says your ideas are doo-doo.

You're right about Mariner 2.

I met him casually at U of Chicago but he played no role in my education. I visited there on occasion to listen to lectures by Chandrasekhar.

[Thefatkitty]

He had the good sense to stick to his guns when physics and maths said that sticking was justified. I'm not a fan of sticking to your guns when observation says your ideas are doo-doo.

You're right about Mariner 2.

I met him casually at U of Chicago but he played no role in my education. I visited there on occasion to listen to lectures by Chandrasekhar.

Thanks for confirming that, and you met him? Again, if I'm right, I believe it was Chandrasekhar who said his math/physics were sound. I agree wholeheartedly with your second sentence too!

"to listen to lectures by Chandrasekhar"... Wow; even though I probably wouldn't get much of it, I would have loved to have had the experience! Good for you

I'd ask who else you've met/listened to of some note, but I bet that list would be pretty long!

All the best,

[notFritzArgelander]

He had the good sense to stick to his guns when physics and maths said that sticking was justified. I'm not a fan of sticking to your guns when observation says your ideas are doo-doo.

You're right about Mariner 2.

I met him casually at U of Chicago but he played no role in my education. I visited there on occasion to listen to lectures by Chandrasekhar.

Thanks for confirming that, and you met him? Again, if I'm right, I believe it was Chandrasekhar who said his math/physics were sound. I agree wholeheartedly with your second sentence too!

"to listen to lectures by Chandrasekhar"... Wow; even though I probably wouldn't get much of it, I would have loved to have had the experience! Good for you

I'd ask who else you've met/listened to of some note, but I bet that list would be pretty long!

All the best,

I can keep the list short to those who had some educational impact.

I was taking a course in galactic structure and dynamics at a nearby institution and we regularly dropped in on Chandrasekhar who happened to be lecturing on the topic at the same time. My primary mentor as an undergraduate was a Chandrasekhar PhD student.

Hans Bethe and I had perhaps a half dozen one-on-one sessions in addition to a semester of research seminars. Seminars only with Sterling Colgate on supernovae.

I had a hard time understanding the role of symmetry breaking in the Standard Model until I had a breakthrough experience in the audience of a colloquium with T D Lee.

Feynman was fun. That I survived the encounter was nice.

This omits mentioning (apart from Chandrasekhar) the two teachers to whom I owe the deepest gratitude for clearing cobwebs.

[Thefatkitty]

That is impressive! I've heard/read about all the people you've mentioned... Some serious rock-stars of physics!

Feynman was fun. That I survived the encounter was nice

I'm still laughing at that and impressed at the same time!

Thanks for that, nFA!

[notFritzArgelander]

Anyway back on topic here is a WaPo obit:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituari ... rker-dead/