Prize Recipient

John Norris Bahcall
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

Citation:

""For his fundamental work on all theoretical aspects of the solar neutrino problem and his important contributions to other areas of nuclear astrophysics.""

Background:

Dr. Bahcall received his BA in physics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1956 and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1961. He was on the faculty of California Institute of Technology and has been a Professor of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, since 1971.

Dr. Bahcall's areas of expertise include models of the Galaxy, dark matter, atomic and nuclear physics applied to astronomical systems, stellar evolution, and quasar emission and absorption lines. In collaboration with Raymond Davis Jr., he proposed in 1964 that neutrinos from the sun could be detected via a practical chlorine detector. In the subsequent three decades, he has refined theoretical predictions and interpretations of solar neutrino detectors.

Dr. Bahcall was awarded the 1970 Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society for his research on quasars and on solar neutrinos, the 1994 Heineman Prize by the American Astronomical Society and the American Institute of Physics for his work on solar neutrinos, and the 1992 NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal for his observations with the Hubble Space Telescope. He was president of the American Astronomical Society from 1990 - 1992 and chair of the National Academy Decade Survey Committee for Astronomy and Astrophysics in the 1990s which successfully set priorities for research projects.

Selection Committee:

Ernest Henley (Chair), Stanford Earl Woosley,Hans A Bethe, Virginia Trimble, John P Schiffer