Sir Fred, born on this day (24 June 1915) in early twentieth century England, spent most of his working life in Cambridge (1945-1973), except for his service to Britain's radar project during the war years. Apparently, discussions with some of his (physicist) colleagues during this radar phase was responsible for leading him towards astrophysics, which ultimately resulted in him formulating the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis in the 1950s.
His pioneering work on nucleosynthesis (creation of the nuclei of heavier material from fusion of lighter nuclei through nuclear fusion) taking place in stable stars and during supernova explosions has laid the foundation for the entire paradigm of stellar nucleosynthesis. This work would be followed by a comprehensive paper in 1957, authored by Margaret Burbidge, Geoffrey Burbidge, William Fowler and Fred Hoyle. Famously known as B2FH, this would go on to become the most influential paper in this area of nuclear astrophysics.
In 1983, Fowler would win the Nobel prize (with S. Chandrasekhar) for his work on nucleosynthesis and generate considerable controversy about Hoyle's exclusion. Controversy, of course, was a constant companion to Sir Fred. Though the story of 1974 Nobel (discovery of the first neutron star) is well known now, it was Sir Fred who first remarked about Jocelyn Bell's non-inclusion (the Nobel was awarded to her PhD advisor Anthony Hewish).
That has not been all, however. He held controversial views about a number of purely scientific issues too. In particular, he was opposed to the "Big Bang" (a term coined by him on a BBC radio show) theory, in which the Universe itself begins its existence at some time in the past. Instead, he believed the Universe to be in a "steady state" and went on to formulate the Steady State theory. Though his theory did conform with the observations available then, it could not explain later observations.
Nevertheless, Sir Fred remained one of the most influential modern astrophysicists, mentoring several important figures like Leon Mestel, Jayant Narlikar, Donald Clayton.. He was also instrumental in establishing the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy (later rechristened as the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge) which enjoys being one of the finest astrophysics research centres till date.
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| Sir Fred Hoyle with his Indian (academic) family : IUCAA, Pune |
Sir Fred's story remains incomplete without mentioning his Indian family. It seems this month we are in the business of claiming kinship to legends. The man of our house traces his academic lineage directly to Sir Fred, through the Hoyle-->Narlikar-->Padmanabhan route. 😁 In fact, Sir Fred has left quite a large Indian family of astrophysicists, acquired through Prof. Narlikar. The accompanying photograph bears testimony to a happy family gathering (about three decades ago) showing Sir Fred with his student, a number of grand-students and very many great-grand-students (courtesy Debi Prasad Duari ).
