<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< ＣＲＣ News No.889：2006年 3月31日 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ＣＲＣ会員 各位 ＣＲＣ事務局 宇宙線研支部 ***********************＜ 訃報： Neil A. Porter氏 ＞*********************** Neil A. Porter 氏が 御逝去されました。 -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Sad news Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2006 17:15:24 -0700 (MST) From: weekes [at] egret.sao.arizona.edu To: KIFUNE Tadashi: I am sorry to relate some sad news. Trevor ***************************************************************** Neil A. Porter: With the death of Neil Porter on March 14, 2006, very high energy gamma-ray astronomy lost one of its founding fathers and an important link with the early days of the atmospheric Cherenkov technique for air shower detection. Neil's career started at the University of Manchester and included early cosmic ray experiments at the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, air shower array work at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell (U. K.) with John Jelley, and a lifetime of work at University College, Dublin. He was a natural teacher and generations of undergraduates in Experimental Physics owe an important component of their education to him. A long line of graduate students (of whom I was proud to be one of the early ones) were inspired to pursue an astrophysics career by his enthusiasm and example. Those of us who have worked with the atmospheric Cherenkov imaging technique are very much aware that the seeds of this technique were sown in his work in the early sixties and that he played a pivotal role in our early work at the Whipple Observatory, culminating in the demonstration of the power of the imaging technique. Amongst his many scientific contributions were: * first recorded images of Cherenkov light from air showers * first proposal of monopoles in the cosmic radiation * first detection of cosmic radiation passing through the human eye * first attempted observations of TeV gamma-rays from quasars * first proposal for using the imaging concept for very high energy gamma-ray astronomy * first detection of radio emission from air showers * first ground-based limits on primordial black holes * detection of first credible TeV gamma-ray source Neil's interests were catholic and ranged from peace studies (in which he got a diploma) to cosmology to astro archeology to the history of physicists who suffered persecution (on which he published a book). He was truly a renaissance man with wide interests and talents: a brilliant raconteur, an actor, a singer, a long distance runner and a gentle man of deep faith. In the French edition of Hawking's famous book "A Brief History of Timesavant irlandais", a remarkably apt description. In his later years Neil was plagued with ill health but kept up his intellectual interest in gamma-ray astronomy and was always interested in the new results, the new methods. With his passing I have lost my mentor, my colleague and my good friend. I learned a lot from Neil; the least of it was physics. We will not see his like again. R.I.P. Trevor 060321 ＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝