When was the Epoch of Galaxy Formation?
As a cosmologist I am often asked when was the Epoch of Galaxy Formation?
Here I provide the definitive answer: the meeting entitled The Epoch of Galaxy Formation took place in Durham between July 18th and 22nd 1988, i.e. about 33 years ago. Here is a relic of that period.
I am in there with John Barrow to my left (ie your right) . I can also identify Jim Peebles, Simon White, Richard Ellis, George Efstathiou and Carlos Frenk, Martin Rees and Tom Shanks among others but I wonder how many others you can identify…
P.S. Note the male-female asymmetry in cosmology was much greater in this period during the early Universe.
UPDATE: here is the solution to the problem.
In the Dark 
July 31, 2021 at 6:00 pm
I can spot Paul Shapiro. Is the person in extreme right (two rows from front) Pavel Kroupa?
July 31, 2021 at 6:02 pm
Also Adrian Melott
July 31, 2021 at 7:28 pm
Maybe:
bernard carr (behind, to left of pjep)
mike fall (2nd from right, 2nd [or 3rd] row)
barbara ryden (in front of bjones)
david weinberg (bearded, behind and to right of bjones)
jerry sellwood (with name tag, towards the back in the middle)
is that not ed turner, not adrian melott, between ryden and white?
July 31, 2021 at 7:32 pm
I think it’s Adrian…
July 31, 2021 at 10:58 pm
For what it’s worth, Adrian himself doesn’t know who it is from the picture, but this is a bunch of people who[m] he hung out with.
July 31, 2021 at 7:37 pm
I can add Gus Evrard and Douglas Scott (left, towards the rear), Nial Tanvir (extreme left, front) and Wal Sargent (extreme right, halfway back). That’s also Alan Heavens next to Tom Shanks.
July 31, 2021 at 7:39 pm
Yes, I forgot to mention Bernard Jones (behind Barbara Ryden)
July 31, 2021 at 7:48 pm
And Silvio Bonometto, second row near the left.
July 31, 2021 at 9:02 pm
and ray carlberg the other side of peebles
August 2, 2021 at 6:06 pm
We all missed Dick Bond and Joe Silk!
July 31, 2021 at 9:46 pm
Ken Freeman second row right, John Norris 2 from Ken’s right
August 1, 2021 at 12:03 am
I see Wal Sargent and Art Wolfe over on the right (our right), and I think maybe Pat McCarthy (a little back and right from center)? Lars Hernquist left near back (pointed out by James Bullock on Twitter). Furthest back on the center-left (our left) side looks like Jonathan Gardner.
August 1, 2021 at 12:34 pm
I think that’s Hugh Couchman who is [up 2, right 1] relative to Bernard Carr
August 1, 2021 at 2:05 pm
Just out of curiosity was LCDM discussed in this meeting? Did anyone also discuss MOND?
August 1, 2021 at 8:31 pm
LCDM wasn’t on the cards back then. It wasn’t until the 90s that it started to figure. I honestly don’t remember about MOND but I doubt there were any talks about.
August 2, 2021 at 4:14 pm
Who is the person directly in front of Pavel Kroupa ( and to the extreme right) and with rolled up shirt and both hands behind? Again looks quite familiar but cannot place the name
August 2, 2021 at 5:46 pm
The person on the extreme right is Tom Shanks. I’m not sure who you think is Pavel Kroupa but the person to the left and behind Tom Shanks is Alan Heavens.
August 2, 2021 at 6:41 pm
Peter, thanks. I got confused between Pavel Kroupa and Alan Heavens. No one guessed Jacob Bekenstein. Didn’t know he was into galaxy formation. or for that matter Jes Madsen (whom I associate with neutron stars/strange stars etc). Incidentally no one from Russia.
August 2, 2021 at 6:45 pm
1988 was just before the Russians were allowed to travel freely.
August 5, 2021 at 7:27 am
Yes, but I think Peter mentioned that there was no discussion of MOND at that meeting and Bekenstein had only 1 paper on MOND in 1980s https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1984ApJ…286….7B
Also, as LCDM was not the “standard model” in the 1980s, I presume everything discussed in that meeting wrt galaxy formation is completely wrong?
August 5, 2021 at 8:28 am
The standard model then was so-called SCDM (Omega=1 with CDM and baryons only), but other versions were discussed. The main difference with LCDM is that everything happens later in SCDM. The epoch of galaxy formation is much earlier in LCDM. You have to remember however that in those days a galaxy was at “high redshift” if it was at z=0.5. We simply couldn’t see very distant galaxies. Now we have them at z=10!
September 2, 2025 at 5:49 pm
[…] Talking of which, there’s a picture on page 41 taken at a meeting in Durham in 1988 called The Epoch of Galaxy Formation that I attended while I was still a graduate […]