Prof John Baldwin FRS : 1931 - 2010
| Members of the Laboratory will be saddened to learn that Professor John
Baldwin died on 7th December 2010 after a short illness which developed during the
summer. John not only had a remarkable impact scientifically, but also on so many of us personally. John was the leading light of the "second generation" of radio astronomers at Cambridge and was at the heart of everything in the Radio Astronomy group during the hugely exciting early period of radio astronomy. The 6C and 7C surveys were for two decades the defining low-frequency surveys. John also pioneered spectral interferometry - the Half-Mile telescope was the first interferometer to image neutral hydrogen. In more recent years John concentrated on developing the new field of optical interferometry: from aperture masks on large optical telescopes to the development of COAST at Lords Bridge, he demonstrated that optical interferometry is a powerful tool for future optical imaging. He was quite simply one of the very few people to really understand every aspect of interferometry. For so many of us it will be John's friendship and wisdom that we will miss beyond all else. We will miss him greatly. Paul Alexander, Peter Littlewood and Malcolm Longair. |  |