Sir Hermann Bondi (1919 - 2005)

[robphy]

From the Cosmic Variance blog

From http://cosmicvariance.com/2005/09/12/the-last-of-the-steady-state-trio-has-moved-on/
"Hermann Bondi, a giant in the fields of astrophysics and cosmology, died on
September 10th. He was best known as one of the co-authors (with Fred Hoyle and Tommy Gold, who passed away in 2001 and 2004, respectively) of the Steady-State model of the universe. Whatever you think of Steady State now, we must credit it (and its authors) for helping launch the modern era of precise cosmological debate - construction of models and confronting them with precise data..."

http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/9/9/8/1
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/4255806.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Bondi

(I see now that there was a https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?p=748087#post748087 several days ago. I think that posting here might bring more attention to his passing.)

Besides his work in cosmology, Bondi popularized the "k-calculus" radar-method presentation of Special Relativity. (See, for example, http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/System/8956/Bondi/intro.htm ) In my informal survey of physics education papers on relativity, Bondi's method is used more (or known better?) in the UK than in the US.

 

[Sir_Deenicus]

Sad. Interestingly though, I was just earlier looking for some material on the k-calculus!