Gold , Thomas , 1920-2004 , astrophysicist

Thomas Gold was born, 22 May 1920 in Vienna, Austria. He lived there for the first ten years of his life before moving with his family to Berlin for three years. When he was thirteen, he was sent to Zuoz College, a boarding school in Switzerland. At the age of eighteen, he left for England, where his parents had settled and, at the age of nineteen, just after the Second World War had started, he went to study engineering at Trinity College, Cambridge. In May 1940, he was interned as an enemy alien. During his internment he met Hermann Bondi, a cosmologist and mathematician (1919-2005) with whom he formed a lifelong friendship.

In August 1941, Gold returned to Trinity College and, in 1942, received a BA degree in Mechanical Sciences (an MA degree in Mechanical Sciences from Cambridge University followed in 1946. He became a Doctor of Science at Cambridge University in 1969). Gold then worked for a few months as a farm labourer and lumberjack. In the autumn of 1942, Frederick Hoyle, Director of the theory group (code named Section XRC8) at the British Admiralty's Signal Establishment, hired him, on Hermann Bondi's advice, as an Experimental Officer to work on radar research and development.

Gold worked at the British Admiralty until 1946 before returning to Cambridge University where he applied for a research grant from the Medical Research Council (MRC) to study ultra sound and its possible use for medical diagnostics. Although the MRC agreed to the grant, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, where he was going to carry out his research, had no space to accommodate him. Therefore his work could not go ahead. Instead, he found another position, also at Cavendish Laboratory, constructing a giant 21cm magnetron for accelerators.

After a few months, Gold went to carry out research into the mechanism of hearing in mammalian ears at the Zoological Laboratory, Cambridge, with Richard Pumphrey, whom he had met during the war. In 1947, he was awarded a prize fellowship from Trinity College for a thesis based on that research and married Merle Eleanor Tuberg, an American astronomer with whom he had three daughters. The marriage eventually ended in divorce. In the late 1940s, he, Hermann Bondi and Fred Hoyle developed the Steady State theory of the expanding universe. In 1949, he became a University Demonstrator in Physics at Cavendish Laboratory. In 1952, he became Chief Assistant to the Royal Astronomer (Senior Principal Scientific Officer) at Royal Greenwich Observatory.

In 1956, Gold moved to America and spent the autumn semester at Cornell University before settling at Harvard University where he became Professor of Astronomy (1957-1958) and then Robert Wheeler Willson Professor of Applied Astronomy, Harvard University (1958-1959). In 1957, he received a Master of Arts degree, honoris causa, from Harvard University. In 1959, he returned to Cornell University to become Chairman of its Astronomy Department (1959-1968) and Director of the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research (1959-1981), which he founded. From 1963 until 1971, he was involved in the running of Arecibo Observatory, a facility operated by Cornell University, and home to the world's largest single-dish radio telescope. He was also Assistant Vice President for Research (1969-1971), John L Wetherill Professor of Astronomy (1971-1986) and John L Wetherill Professor of Astronomy, Emeritus (1987-2004).

During his time at Cornell University, his achievements included correctly identifying that pulsars are rotating neutron stars, predicting that the surface of the moon would be covered with a layer of fine-grained rock powder ('lunar regolith' or 'moon dust') and designing the camera that astronauts used to photograph the surface of the moon on the Apollo 11, 12 and 14 missions. Towards the end of his life, he was perhaps best known for his advocacy of the controversial theory that oil and gas deposits are non-biological (abiogenic) in origin. He also proposed that microbial life exists deep beneath the earth's surface, a theory that has been proved correct. These theories resulted in two books, Thomas Gold, 'Power from the Earth: deep earth gas - energy for the future' (London, Dent, 1987) and Thomas Gold, 'The deep hot biosphere - the myth of fossil fuels' (New York, Copernicus Books, 1999).

In 1972, Gold married Carvel Beyer with whom he had one daughter. He died in Ithaca, New York, on 22 June 2004 at the age of 84. By birth, he was an Austrian citizen. He was also a British citizen (through naturalisation in July 1947) and an American citizen (through naturalisation in 1964).

Thomas Gold also held the following academic and non-academic positions: Vanuxem Lecturer, Princeton University (1973); Henry R Luce Professor of Cosmology, Mount Holyoke College, whilst on leave from Cornell University (1975-1976); Commonwealth Lecturer, University of Massachusetts (1975); Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar (1978-1979); Visiting Professor, Niehls Bohr Institute, Copenhagen (1980); Welsh Lecturer, University of Toronto (1980); Alexander von Humboldt Professor, University of Bonn, whilst on leave from Cornell University (1982); George Darwin Lectureship, Royal Astronomical Society, London (1982). He was also a member of the Space Sciences Panel of the American President's Science Advisory Committee for seven years and a member of a number of NASA planning committees including the Lunar and Planetary Missions Board.

Thomas Gold was also a Fellow or Member of the following societies: Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, London (10 December 1948). Served on the Council of the Society from 1955 until 1957; Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (8 May 1957); Member of the Cornell University Chapter of The Society of the Sigma Xi (15 May 1960); Fellow of The American Geophysical Union (April 1962); Fellow of the Royal Society (19 March 1964); Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1968); Fellow of the American Astronautical Society (1970). Member from 1970 until 1976; Member of the American Philosophical Society (21 Apr 1972); President of the New York Astronomical Society (1981-1986); Member of the International Academy of Astronautics.

Thomas Gold received the following: John F Lewis Prize, American Philosophical Society (1972); Alexander von Humboldt Prize [1979]; Gold Medal, Royal Astronomical Society, London (1985). He was also given an Honorary Fellowship by Trinity College, Cambridge (1986).