Thomas Gold, left, professor emeritus of astronomy, questions Hans Bethe, right, the John Wendell Anderson Professor of Physics Emeritus, after his lecture during the Edwin Salpeter symposium in the Biotechnology Building Oct. 4. Looking on is Yervant Terzian, the symposium's chairman and the James A. Weeks Professor of Physical Sciences and chair of the astronomy department. Frank DiMeo/University Photography
Notable scientists from astronomy and physics, former students and Cornell community and family members gathered Saturday, Oct. 4, in the Biotechnology Building for a symposium celebrating the career of Edwin E. Salpeter, the James Gilbert White Distinguished Professor in the Physical Sciences.
"We are living in a special time for humanity because we are learning our place in the universe," Bruce Draine, MS '75, Ph.D. '78, a former student of Salpeter's at Cornell and now a professor of astronomy at Princeton University, told the audience.
Draine's presentation, "Dust Between the Stars," highlighted Salpeter's immense influence on Draine and his research contribution.
"We are learning how old the universe is, we have a great picture of the externals. But at the time I was a grad student, looking for dust in the universe wasn't the most glamorous area to study. Ed put me to work in this area," said Draine, who was one of many accomplished former students of Salpeter's attending the symposium. "As a graduate student, I would have made different career choices. I'm glad I got to work with Ed; I didn't know how much fun it was going to be."
Other lectures were presented by Cornell Nobel laureate Hans Bethe, the John Wendell Anderson Professor of Physics Emeritus; David Stevenson, a professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology; Hugh Van Horne, director of astronomical sciences at the National Science Foundation; Bruce Tarter, director of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory; and Alan Lightman, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Yervant Terzian, the James A. Weeks Professor of Physical Sciences and chair of Cornell's astronomy department, chaired the symposium.
Earlier this year Salpeter won the 1997 Crafoord Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He was cited for his studies of chain reactions, including the "Salpeter process," which describes how older stars have energy to continue to shine. Salpeter also is known for the "Salpeter function" -- a theoretical expression for the numbers of stars of different masses among newly formed stars per unit volume of a galaxy.
A member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Salpeter has won many awards, including the Gold Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society (England) in 1973, the J.R. Oppenheimer Memorial Prize for his contributions to nuclear physics and relativistic astrophysics, and the Carnegie Institution Award for Research in Astrophysics in 1959.
While the symposium was filled with scientific discourse, Salpeter's wife, Mika Salpeter, a professor of neurobiology and behavior, provided personal insights about her husband on the occasion of his retirement and explained his contribution to her research on agonists in nerve muscle synapses.
In addition to the science, she also provided the symposium with some lighter moments. Recalling their budding romance, which has blossomed into a 47-year marriage, Mika Salpeter told of how, as a graduate student in 1950, she chose to enroll in Salpeter's math courses.
"He told me, 'Why bother? Anytime you have a math question, come to me,'" she said. "Well, that was about as close to a marriage proposal as I figured, so I said, 'Yes!'"
Salpeter was thrilled by the gathering of former students in his honor.
"It is clearly exciting to see the outcome of these students," Salpeter said. "It's like having a baby; they're doing very interesting things."