I am sorry to report the passing of Ralph Alpher, of the famous "Alpher-Bethe-Gamow" paper. I don't know many details, but he's been in poor health for some time, so this is sad but not surprising news.
Ralph Alpher was an astrophysicist and cosmologist whose thesis work with George Gamow on the origin of the universe was a critical early step in the development of the "Big Bang" theory. Alpher predicted the existence of the cosmic microwave background, and estimated its temperature (at 5K, not far from the correct value of 2.7 K) in 1948, nearly two decades before it was detected by Penzias and Wilson. He has won numerous awards for this work (though not a share of the Nobel), most recently the National Medal of Science and Technology for 2005 (though, oddly, it was awarded only this year).
Alpher spent most of his career working for General Electric. After his retirement from GE, he held the title of Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Union College. In 2004, he retired again, to Florida, and then to Texas.
On a personal note, I met Ralph only a few times (he used to have the office next to mine, but he rarely came in), but he was an engaging fellow, and led an interesting life. He had some very amusing stories about Gamow and others, and he was a pretty sharp guy. He was still working on physics as of 2004, the last time I spoke with him, and I hope I'm doing as well when I reach his age.
His funeral will be on Thursday in Albany, NY. That's as much as I know now-- the information is from his son, via friends of Ralph's from his GE days, so don't try getting it into Wikipedia-- but if I see any obituaries, I'll link to them.
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Sad news, indeed.
I did my dissertation work in the 60's on the CBR and so built on the Alpher Bethe Gamow paper and Penzias and Wilson's work. I showed that the CBR was indeed a blackbody by measurement past the peak (from rotational temperature of diatomic molecules in interstellar gas clouds) and always have had a respect and admiration for the theoretical prediction of that seminal paper. Very sorry to see Alpher leave us, but in awe that he kept active till the end. Truly an inspiration for us youguns.
My uncle-a distinguised person. Whatever is written about him cannot describe the magnitude of his being. Will be at funeral this Thursday in Albany.
As my brother, Dr. Norman Alpher, said in his blog, my Uncle Ralph was a distinguished person. Words do not adequately describe him. He had an amazing ability to explain complex things so simply even I could understand them. And he was the kindest, gentlest person I've ever known. This is a great loss for us all.
Just a quick note...the Washington Post should have a good article on my Dad within a few days, as well as the Albany (NY) Times-Union and the Schenectady Gazette, for which I provided a good deal of information. I also try to keep the English Wikipedia article correct and up-to-date, and maintain the website www.ralphalpher.com. There will be a documentary on the History Channel (he was interviewed in Austin on 9/1/06) on Cosmology and the Big Bang that shall air on 9/4/07, in which he will appear. One a personal note, he was a great father, a superior role model, a gentleman in all ways, and exemplary of the heights to which a first-generation American can climb using his God-given talents.
That promises to be an interesting program. I have always wondered if he got overlooked for the Nobel because he was working in industry without an academic p.r. operation behind his work, or if it was because so many people assumed Bethe had a major role in the paper, or just because the prize would have had to be split 4 ways.
Victor, if not for the one photo, one would be left guessing that your father must have worked on radar because of his research background. The existence of the proximity fuse is no longer a secret, so you should make his contribution to that project more prominent. (Ditto for his work at GE.) The proximity fuse saved countless thousands of lives and may have been as important as the A bomb in the Pacific.
Only recently have we been told about the work men like Jackson (Classical Electrodynamics) and Land (Polaroid) contributed to the Corona spy satellite project, and then only in general terms. [Talk at 1999 APS meeting.] Ditto for those who built the first computer at Bletchley Park. These contributions need to be recognized once the veil has been lifted.
CCPhysicist--sharp that you noticed the Proximity FUze. Declassified in 1976, Baldwin wrote a book published in 1980 on the "funny fuze" (as General George Patton called it--he couldn't get enough of them and they were used in the Ardennes Forest in late 44-45 also. Some say that vacuum-tube radio-controlled warhead won the war. By the time of Vietnam, it was the standard fuze for U.S. Army artillery, and you had to make a special request for timed fuzes. However, that isn't the only wartime project he worked on, and I plan to write about some of his other wartime work--the "day job" that permitted him to go to G.W. at night for his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. Since I was born after 1948, I can only imagine what his life was like during the War years and the 10 years following when he was at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, but there s a great deal of technical and theoretical writing that, because it was done on government contracts, does not even bear his name. He was a stellar genius, and by the way, a great Dad who had time to teach me woodworking, radio and Morse code, serve with the local Boy Scouts (he and I are Eagles), help build a PBS station into a national force (WMHT-TV) as its President, and much, much more. The Variable Time or Proximity Fuze was first used, I believe, at the Battle of Midway, but we would have lost many more ships in the Pacific were it not for the 5 in. anti-aircraft radio-controlled fuze. I've seen interviews with Japanese pilots who were mystified when planes were being shot out of the sky without being directly hit....hence the photos on the website. And, he made some dry runs on another project on the U.S.S. Massachusetts, in uniform--Admiral Greer in Hunt for Red October wasn't the first one to get that idea...it goes on, and on.