Wallace L. W. Sargent

Wal Sargent
Born Wallace Leslie William Sargent
(1935-02-15)February 15, 1935
Died October 29, 2012(2012-10-29) (aged 77)
Institutions California Institute of Technology[1]
Alma mater University of Manchester (PhD)
Doctoral advisor Franz Daniel Kahn[2][3]
Doctoral students
Notable awards FRS (1981)[4]
Spouse Anneila Sargent (m. 1964)
Website
www.astro.caltech.edu/~wws

Wallace Leslie William Sargent FRS[4] (February 15, 1935  October 29, 2012) was a British-born American astronomer[5] and the Ira S. Bowen Professor of Astronomy at California Institute of Technology.[1]

Education

Sargent was born in Elsham, North Lincolnshire, the son of a gardener and a housecleaner, and grew up in Winterton, Lincolnshire.[6] Sargent was the first person in his family to attend high school, and the first student from his high school to ever attend college.[7] He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Manchester in 1956, and his Ph.D. in 1959 from the same institution.[4]

Career and research

Sargent spent the majority of his career at California Institute of Technology (Caltech),[1] excepting an absence of four years during which he claims to have had to go back to England to find himself a wife, Anneila Sargent.

Sargent was known for his studies of quasar absorption lines.

He supervised the theses of a number of students while at Caltech, including John Huchra,[2] Edwin Turner, Charles C. Steidel, and Alex Filippenko.

He was director of the Palomar Observatory from 1997 to 2000.

Awards and Honors

Personal life

Sargent was married to fellow Caltech astronomer Anneila Sargent from 1964 until his death. Although he became a U.S. citizen, he was born in Elsham, England.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Wallace Sargent's Homepage". Caltech. Archived from the original on 2015-04-28.
  2. 1 2 3 Wallace L. W. Sargent at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  3. Dyson, J. E.; Lynden Bell, D. (1999). "Franz Daniel Kahn. 13 May 1926 -- 8 February 1998: Elected F.R.S. 1993". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 45: 255. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1999.0017.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Lynden-Bell, Donald (2015). "Wallace Leslie William Sargent. 15 February 1935 — 29 October 2012". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (Royal Society publishing) 61. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2015.0018. ISSN 0080-4606.
  5. 10/30/2012. "Caltech Mourns the Passing of Wallace L. W. Sargent | Caltech". Caltech.edu. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
  6. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/10/local/la-me-wallace-sargent-20121110
  7. http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/669931


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