In the Dark

I’ve just heard the sad news that former Astronomer Royal Sir Arnold Wolfendale passed away on December 21st 2020 at the age of 93. There’s a full tribute to him here from Durham University, where he spent most of his very distinguished career as a cosmic ray physicist and played such an important role in developing a worldwide centre of excellence in Astronomy.

I remember Arnold Wolfendale very well from many trips to Durham over the years, starting with the SERC School for new postgraduate students in Astronomy I attended in 1985. He was an avuncular and extremely friendly presence there who went to a lot of trouble to talk to studdents; you can see him in the front row of the now (in)famous group photograph taken there:

Rest in peace, Sir Arnold Wolfendale (1927-2020)

This entry was posted on January 4, 2021 at 8:15 pm and is filed under Biographical, The Universe and Stuff with tags Arnold Wolfendale, astronomy, Durham University, Sir Arnold Wolfendale. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.