| Authorised form of name | Gold; Thomas (1920 - 2004) |
| Dates | 1920 - 2004 |
| Place of birth | Vienna |
| Date of birth | 22/05/1920 |
| Place of death | Ithaca, New York |
| Date of death | 22/06/2004 |
| Occupation | Astronomer, physicist, biophysicist, astrophysicist, cosmologist, geophysicist |
| Activity | Education:
Zuoz College, Switzerland; Trinity College, Cambridge (engineering)
Career:
Interned during WW2 as an enemy alien (May 1940-1941); researched radar ground clutter with Bondi and Hoyle for Admiralty, becoming Chief Scientific Advisor to the Ministry of Defence; Fellow, Trinity College, Cambridge (1947-1951); proposed "steady state" hypothesis of the universe with Fred Hoyle and fellow former internee Hermann Bondi; staff, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge (1946-1947, 1949-1952); staff, Medical Research Council Zoological Laboratory, Cambridge (1947-1949) to work on human hearing; Senior Principal Scientific Officer, Royal Greenwich Observatory (1952-1956); moved to USA to become Professor of Astronomy, Harvard University (1957-1958); Robert Wheeler Wilson Professor of Applied Astronomy, Harvard University (1958-1959); member of US President's Space Science Panel for seven years; John L Wetherill Professor of Astronomy, Cornell University (1971-1986, Emeritus), founder and director of Cornell Center for Radiophysics and Space Research (1959-1981) where he demonstrated that the newly discovered "pulsar" phenomenon must contain a rotating neutron star (a star more massive than the Sun but just 10 km in diameter) This 'opened the door' to Stephen Hawking, as it is a short step form accepting neutron stars to accepting black holes'; subsequently advanced another controversial theory, that of the "abiotic" origin of oil; wrote The Deep Hot Biosphere (1992) concerning existence of bacteria at depths far greater than previously believed - predicted that Mars would also have a deep hot biosphere; awarded gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society; member of US National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 19/03/1964 |
| Age at election | 43 |
| Relationships | Married (1947) Merle Tuberg, marriage dissolved; married (1972) Carvel Beyer |
| PublishedWorks | The Deep Hot Biosphere |
| Source | Obituaries:
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 2006 vol 52 pp 117-135, plate, by Sir Hermann Bondi
Obituaries in The Guardian (24/06/2004); The Times (28/06/2004); The Independent (29 June 2004)
References:
Sir Bernard Lovell, 'The Royal Society, the Royal Greenwich Observatory and the Astronomer Royal' in NR 1994 vol 48 pp 283-297 |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/79180248 |
| Code | NA1529 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| IM/001693 | Gold, Thomas | nd |
| IM/001691 | Gold, Thomas | nd |
| RR/71/122 | Referee's report by Archibald Vivian Hill, on a paper 'Hearing. II. The physical basis of the action of the cochlea' by Thomas Gold | [1948] |
| RR/71/123 | Referee's report by Hamilton Hartridge, on a paper 'Hearing. II. The physical basis of the action of the cochlea' by Thomas Gold | [1948] |
| RR/71/119 | Referee's report by Archibald Vivian Hill, on a paper 'Hearing. I. The cochlea as a frequency analyzer' by Thomas Gold and Richard Julius Pumphrey | [1948] |
| EC/1964/13 | Gold, Thomas: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| TG/1/2/40 | A new joint American-Australian Astronomy Center, descriptive article by Thomas Gold and H Messel | 11 July 1964 |
| TG | Correspondence and papers of Thomas Gold | Nov 1944-Sep 2004 |
| RR/71/120 | Referee's report by Hamilton Hartridge, on a paper 'Hearing. I. The cochlea as a frequency analyzer' by Thomas Gold and Richard Julius Pumphrey | [1948] |
| RR/71/121 | Referee's report by Edgar Douglas Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian, on a paper 'Hearing. I. The cochlea as a frequency analyzer' by Thomas Gold and Richard Julius Pumphrey | 24 April 1948 |