Scientist. An astronomer and geoscientist, he is best known for developing, along with Hermann Bondi and the late Fred Hoyle, the steady-state theory of the universe which assumes a world that has no beginning or end and that matter is constantly being created. While this theory is generally considered to be incorrect (the big-bang theory prevails), many of his other controversial ideas have stood the test of time. In the late 1960s, Gold's theoretical work on pulsars, rapidly pulsating radio wave sources, turned out to be correct, that they are collapsed neutron stars that are rotating. Born in Vienna and educated in Switzerland, he went to Cambridge University in England to study shortly before World War II; received his bachelor's and master's degrees there and later a doctorate in 1969. While at Cambridge, he spent a year in a British internment camp during World War II as a suspected enemy alien. He later helped develop naval radar for the British Admiralty. He emigrated to the United States in 1956 becoming a professor of astronomy at Harvard in 1956. Then was hired by Cornell to chair the astronomy department; also directed the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research. Retired in 1987 and continued to publish and conduct research. He was a fellow of the Royal Society and was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences; also served on the President's Science Advisory Committee.

Scientist. An astronomer and geoscientist, he is best known for developing, along with Hermann Bondi and the late Fred Hoyle, the steady-state theory of the universe which assumes a world that has no beginning or end and that matter is constantly being created. While this theory is generally considered to be incorrect (the big-bang theory prevails), many of his other controversial ideas have stood the test of time. In the late 1960s, Gold's theoretical work on pulsars, rapidly pulsating radio wave sources, turned out to be correct, that they are collapsed neutron stars that are rotating. Born in Vienna and educated in Switzerland, he went to Cambridge University in England to study shortly before World War II; received his bachelor's and master's degrees there and later a doctorate in 1969. While at Cambridge, he spent a year in a British internment camp during World War II as a suspected enemy alien. He later helped develop naval radar for the British Admiralty. He emigrated to the United States in 1956 becoming a professor of astronomy at Harvard in 1956. Then was hired by Cornell to chair the astronomy department; also directed the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research. Retired in 1987 and continued to publish and conduct research. He was a fellow of the Royal Society and was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences; also served on the President's Science Advisory Committee.

Bio by: Fred Beisser