The Bruce Medalists: Edwin Salpeter

<body bgcolor=#9CCEFF> <font size="+5"><b><a href="../Intro.html" target="main"><font color="#CC6600">The Bruce Medalists</font></a></b></font> <p>   </p> <table width="100%" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" > <tr><td width = "33%"> </td> <td width = "34%" align="center"><a href="salpeter.jpg"><img src="salpeterSml.jpg" alt="" height="133" width="91" border="2"></a></td> <td valign="middle"><font size="-2">Photo 1987, courtesy Cornell University </font></td><td> </td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><font size="+2"><b><font color="#CC6600">Edwin Ernest Salpeter</font></b></font></td></tr> <tr><td><b>3 December 1924</b></td> <td align="center"><b>1987 Bruce Medalist</b></td> <td align="right"><b> </b></td> </tr> </table> <p>Ed Salpeter emigrated from Austria to Australia in his teens and received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. at the <b><a href="http://www.usyd.edu.au/about/profile/pub/history.shtml">University of Sydney</a></b>. He earned his Ph.D. under Rudolph Peierls at the <b><a href="http://www.bham.ac.uk/physics/general/history.html">University of Birmingham</a></b> in England and has been at <b><a href="http://www.library.cornell.edu/psl/displays/physhist.php">Cornell University</a></b> since 1948. He worked in quantum electrodynamics and nuclear physics with <b><a href="../Bethe/index.html">Hans A. Bethe</a></b>, with whom he wrote a famous monograph on relativistic atomic physics. In 1951 Salpeter explained how the“triple-alpha reaction could make carbon from helium in stars. He then investigated the effects of nuclear physics on stellar evolution and derived the initial mass function, <i>i.e.</i>, the rate of formation of stars of different mass in the Galaxy, from stellar evolution and the observed abundances of stars of different luminosities. He has also worked on the formation of dust grains and molecules in the interstellar medium. More recently he has been interested in polar caps on neutron stars, clusters of galaxies, and problems in neurobiology, biophysics and epidemiology. </p> <p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Personal Web Page</font></FONT></b><br><a href="http://astrosun2.astro.cornell.edu/people/facstaff-detail.php?pers_id=110">At Cornell</a><br></p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Presentation of Bruce medal</font></FONT></b><br> <i>Mercury</i> <b>16</b>, 144 (1987).</p> <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Other awards</font></FONT></b><br> American Astronomical Society, <a href="http://www.aas.org/grants/awards.html#russell">Henry Norris Russell Lectureship</a>, 1974.<br> American Physical Society, <a href="http://www.aps.org/praw/bethe/99winner.cfm">Hans A. Bethe Prize, 1999</a><br> Astronomische Gesellschaft, <a href="http://www.ari.uni-heidelberg.de/AG/ag9ksm.html">Karl Schwarzschild Medal</a>, 1985, Lecture: Galactic Fountains, Planetary Nebulae, and Warm H I, <i>Mitteilungen der AG</i> <b>63</b>, 11 (1985).<br> Carnegie Institution of Washington, Award for Research in Astrophysics, 1959.<br> University of Miami, J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Prize.<br> Royal Astronomical Society, <a href="http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=268">Gold medal</a>, 1973, presented by <a href="../Hoyle/index.html">Fred Hoyle</a>, <a href="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1973QJRAS..14..275."><i>QJRAS</i> <b>14</b>, 275-76 (1973)</a>.<br> Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, <a href="http://www.kva.se/KVA_Root/eng/awards/international/crafoord/index.asp">Crafoord prize</a>, 1997. [<a href="http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/97/6.5.97/Salpeter.html">Press release</a>]<br> </p> <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Biographical materials</font></FONT></b><br> Salpeter, E.E.,“A Generalist Looks Back, <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=2002ARA%26A..40....1S"><i>Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys.</i> <b>40</b>, 1 (2002)</a> [<a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=2002ARA%26A..40....1S&db_key=AST&high=3e9744b8e614300">abstract</a>].<br> <a href="http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/97/10.9.97/Salpeter.html">Symposium at Cornell University</a> </p>  <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Photos</font></FONT></b><br> <a href="http://photos.aip.org/veritySearch.jsp">AIP Center for History of Physics</a><br> <a href="http://www.na2007.caltech.edu/photos/DSC00099.JPG">Caltech, at Nuclear Astrophysics 1957-2007 Conference</a><br> <a href="http://www.astro.clemson.edu/NucleoArchive/PhotoList/index.html">Clemson University, Photo Archive in Nuclear Astrophysics</a> [includes several candid shots with others].<br> <a href="http://images.google.com/images?q=edwin+salpeter&ie=ISO-8859-1&hl=en">more photos</a><br> </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Named after him</font></FONT></b><br> <a href="http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/MPNames.html">Minor Planet #11757 Salpeter</a><br> <a href="http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/hep-ph/9803307">Bethe-Salpeter Equation</a> (with <a href="../Bethe/">Hans A. Bethe</a>)<br> Cornell University, <a href="http://www.astro.cornell.edu/events/salpeter/index.php">Salpeter Lectureship</a> <br> </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><a href="SalpeterRefs.html" target="_self">More references</a></font></b></p> <div align="center"><b><a href="../Intro.html" target="main">The Bruce Medalists</a></b></div> <p> <table width="100%"> <tr> <td valign="TOP"><font size="-1">Please send comments, additions, corrections, and questions to<br> <a href="MAILTO:joe.tenn@sonoma.edu"> joe.tenn@sonoma.edu</a></font></td> <td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><font size="-1"><i> <a href="http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/people/faculty/tenn/">JST</a> </i><br>2008-01-25</font></td> </tr> </table> </p> </body>