The Epoch of Galaxy Formation, Durham 1988.
The previous old conference photograph I posted seemed to be quite popular, so I thought I’d try an even older vintage. This was also taken at Durham, but at a meeting entitled The Epoch of Galaxy Formation, which took place between July 18th and 22nd 1988. Appropriately enough, this one is in glorious monochrome. Spot any familiar faces?
In the Dark 
August 2, 2012 at 10:17 pm
Wake up Phillip:
Neil Tanvir, Neal Katz, Jim Gunn, Tod Lauer, Garth Illingworth, Josh Barnes, Paul Shapiro, David Vals-Gabaud, John Norris, Dave Spergel, Ken Freeman, Alan Heavens, Wal Sargent, Dick Bond, Hy Spinrad, Joe Silk, Carolin Crawford, Hugh Couchman, Peter Thomas, David Weinberg, Simon Lilly, Cedric Lacey, Gus Evrard, Jeremy Allington-Smith, Roderick Johnstone, Mike Fall, Max Pettini, Richard Green, Doug Scott, Ray Carlberg, Art Wolfe, Ken Kellerman, John Lucey, Laurence Jones and ….. the one and only Dick Fong
But the tricky ones are the ones you question: the Bill Haley look-alike is Renzo Sancisi. The lady could be Anneila Sargent (I seem to remember she was there), but the others I dunno.
August 2, 2012 at 10:17 pm
Who’s the guy with the beard behind and to our left of Peebles in this one? (He’s in the “tests of inflation” picture too.) Sure I recognise him but can’t quite place it.
August 2, 2012 at 10:23 pm
Bernard Carr.
August 2, 2012 at 11:03 pm
George Efstathiiou
Richard Griffiths
August 3, 2012 at 12:23 am
Ken Freeman and is that John Norris two from Ken’s right
August 3, 2012 at 7:41 am
The new-wave singer with big hair and pentagonal sunglasses is, I think, the legendary poker player Keith Ashman. And a few more: Pat McCarthy, Adrian Melott, Will Sutherland, Silvio Bonometto, and I think that’s Raja GuhaThakurta at the front.
August 3, 2012 at 10:12 am
indeed – the legendary bass and poker player, Keith Ashman, with Douglas Scott not far from him.
August 3, 2012 at 11:15 am
Keith Ashman was Bernard Carr’s student. He went to work at the University of Kansas and I met him there on several visits, including once in 1997 when he had a party to watch the general election results come in. Midnight in the UK being early evening Kansas time, it was ideal. I was so excited that Labour had won that I went and got a tattoo of a red rose right then. Of course the euphoria evaporated when we discovered the true nature of Blair, but it was great while it lasted.
August 3, 2012 at 11:32 am
i was lucky enough to see the Blue Jays win two “World Series” during my time in Toronto. amongst the other highlights were Keith’s poker nights, where i did battle with the brainy beggars at CITA. Keith blogs, less often than i’d like, at http://feline9ine.blogspot.com/
August 10, 2012 at 6:04 pm
A bit late to this and out of my personal scientific domain, but the woman to the right (as we look) of Keith Ashman looks very much like Cathie Clarke to me. I think she was working in this field in those days, in addition to star formation.
And at the back, framed in a window on the middle left, is Jon Gardner.
But I don’t think the woman to the right of the two spectacled men to the right of Maarten Schmidt is Anneila Sargent; doesn’t look like her at all.
Then again, the compression used on the big version of the image is so strong, it borders on the impressionistic … š
August 12, 2012 at 10:06 am
Yes, that’s definitely Cathie Clarke. I hadn’t realised she was interested in Galaxy Formation though!
August 12, 2012 at 10:25 pm
Well, I had to do a quick ADS search to be sure, but yes, Cathie worked on galaxy formation back then. She was working on disks in various contexts and scales …
August 1, 2018 at 9:56 am
Mark: The non-Sargent person is Esther Zirbel.
July 31, 2018 at 6:47 pm
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August 1, 2018 at 12:36 am
Nobody seems to have mentioned Barbara Ryden, in front of and to the right of Bernard Jones.
August 1, 2018 at 9:50 am
Phillip: Peter re-posted this on FB, hence the revived interest. It was a great meeting. The subject was so small in those days, and so youth-dominated: I’m not sure anyone in that picture was over 60, whereas most of those faces are now in that age bin, and they’re all still showing up to conferences.
August 1, 2018 at 10:10 am
Yes, I posted it because I realised the near-anniversary. Lots of people must have shared it as it has had hundreds of views in the last 24 hours.
What you say about the meeting is all true, but the awful gender balance is all too obvious.
I think I gave a (short) talk at this meeting but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was about! I was still a graduate student then…
August 1, 2018 at 10:12 am
The thing I do remember is at the end of the meeting there were various votes about galaxy formation, the results of which made no sense whatsoever.
August 1, 2018 at 9:54 am
The row assignment seems a bit ambiguous to me. Towards the back, on the far L, I see Lars Hernquist next to Douglas Scott. Behind him is Gus Evrard next to Maarten Schmidt. Behind them is Bian Yulin, who was visiting Edinburgh from China at the time.