050816: John Bahcall

A lot of people, myself included, were surprised when he didn’t share in the Physics Nobel Prize back in 2002, which would have been rightfully warranted by his theoretical work on the Solar Model, and in particular on the Solar Neutrino Problem. For three decades, he and Ray Davis have sustained that their model and experimental observations, respectively, were correct, albeit that they appeard mutually inconsistent. Recent results (in the past five years) have confirmed that they were both correct, and that the anamoly can be explained by the phenomena known as Neutrino Oscillations.

On a more personal note, and all physics aside — not that I haven’t personally learnt a great deal from his books and website with the “dancing neutrinos”, as noted by a one-time supervisor of mine — what most impressed me about Dr. Bahcall is his confidence in his science, coupled with an aura of humility, which I’ve been fortunate enough to experience first-hand. I am grateful to have met the man, albeit ever so briefly, and to have been inspired by his confidence and success. May he rest in peace.