Laurence "Larry" Fredrick (1927 - 2024)
Dr. Laurence “Larry” W. Fredrick passed peacefully on May 19, 2024 at the age of 96. Larry was instrumental in building the modern-day UVA Astronomy Department, and he was a valued colleague to several generations of astronomers.
After graduating high school, Larry joined the Navy and served in Naval Intelligence from 1945 to 1948. He then attended Swarthmore College and earned his Bachelor’s in Mathematics (1952) and his Master’s in Astronomy (1954). During that time, he visited McCormick Observatory to take observations for his Master’s research. He earned his Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Pennsylvania in 1959, and then joined the staff of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he was involved in the development of photocathode tubes for use in astronomy.
Larry was recruited to the University of Virginia by William Duren, then Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, who was looking for someone to reestablish the Astronomy Department. At the time, the telescope at McCormick Observatory was not in working order, and much of the equipment was outdated. He came to a department with two faculty members, and through a program of strategic hiring and growth, he led the department to sustained national prominence.
Upon his arrival at UVA in 1963, he served as the last director of the Leander McCormick Observatory and the first chair of the Department of Astronomy. He realized the scientific potential of McCormick Observatory was limited, so he set out to identify a suitable location to build a modern observatory for the University. This led to the establishment of Fan Mountain Observatory in southern Albemarle County, with first a 31-inch general-purpose telescope, followed by a 40-inch astrometric reflector to continue the parallax work of McCormick Observatory. Around this same time, he was supportive of the effort to bring the headquarters for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory to Charlottesville, which invigorated the astronomical research community at UVA.
Larry was known for his broad expertise as an observer. He was an early advocate for the development of space telescopes, which would not be subject to the blurring effects of the Earth’s atmosphere. He later carried out astrometric studies using the Hubble Space Telescope soon after its launch.
In addition to his efforts on behalf of the Department and the University, Larry contributed significant service at the national level. He was Secretary of the American Astronomical Society from 1969-1980, a period of significant change and growth in membership. He was also a member of several other professional societies, such as the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the Virginia Academy of Science, the Royal Astronomical Society (Fellow), The Planetary Society, and the National Space Society, to name a few. He contributed to the NASA Large Space Telescope Committee, the U. S. Naval Observatory Scientific Visiting Committee, the American Institute of Physics Committee on International Relations, and the American Astronomical Society Committee on Astronomical Public Policy. He chaired NASA’s Astronomy Working Group and was involved in the work of site selection for the Apollo lunar landings. He was also a member of the Astronomy Science Team for the Hubble Space Telescope.
Larry retired from the Department and was honored as a professor emeritus in 1995. Even in retirement, Larry remained an active part of Department life. He frequently lunched with fellow faculty, taking short walks around Grounds to various restaurants. Larry was an avid golfer, and enjoyed golfing locally at Farmington and Birdwood, as well as traveling to golf all over the world. During his time living at Alden House on Mount Jefferson (Observatory Hill), he held annual Halloween parties that are recalled to this day by faculty and graduate students alike. He was also passionate about photography, and enjoyed taking pictures of nature, astronomical events, and his family.
John Hawley (1958 - 2021)
John Hawley, an international award-winning University of Virginia astrophysicist and the senior associate dean for academic affairs for the University’s College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, died of cancer on December 12, 2021 at his home in Earlysville. He was 63. He was a member of the department for 34 years. Hawley will be remembered by his colleagues as a brilliant computational astrophysicist who also lent his stature to influential leadership positions within the College as a department chair and associate dean. He came to UVA in 1987 from the California Institute of Technology. Seven years after his arrival on Grounds, Hawley won the Helen B. Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society, which is awarded to an astronomer under the age of 36 for a significant contribution during the five years preceding the award.
His research focused on the physics of gas accretion. While accretion is ubiquitous in the universe, the physical mechanism that drives it was not well understood. Working with Balbus in the 1990s, however, Hawley identified a powerful instability in magnetized gases that drives the turbulent flow, allowing a detailed understanding of the accretion process. Today, the “magnetorotational instability” is applied to study a wide variety of celestial objects, UVA astronomy chair Phil Arras said, from accretion disks around black holes to the disks from which stars and planets form.
He was an avid cat-lover, which prompted a successful fundraiser benefitting the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA. In his memory, the department raised over $1,200.
Mercedes Richards (1955 - 2016)
Mercedes Tharam Richards, 60, of State College, passed away at Hershey, Pennsylvania on February 3, 2016. Richards’s research focused on computational astrophysics, stellar astrophysics, and exoplanets and brown dwarfs. She was most known for her research in the tomography of binary star systems, where her work was considered pioneering in the field. She was elected as an officer for many astronomical organizations, including as president of Commission 42 of the International Astronomical Union, as a councilor of the American Astronomical Society, and as a member of the Board of Advisers of the Caribbean Institute of Astronomy.
She joined the faculty at UVA in 1987. She was appointed as assistant professor of astronomy in 1987, promoted to associate professor in 1993, and to professor of astronomy in 1999. In addition, she was a visiting scientist during the 2000-2001 academic year at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. In 2002, she joined the faculty of Penn State as a professor of astronomy and astrophysics.
Robert "Bob" Rood (1942 - 2011)
Bob Rood, professor emeritus of astronomy in the University of Virginia's College of Arts & Sciences, died Nov. 2 after suffering a stroke while at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. He had been en route to Italy to collaborate with colleagues. After studying at North Carolina State University, he earned his Ph.D. in astrophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969 and conducted postdoctoral research at the California Institute of Technology. He also collaborated with colleagues worldwide, particularly in Bologna, Italy, Green Bank, W.Va., and Bonn, Germany. He started his career as a stellar structure and evolution theorist, later focusing on observational studies of star clusters and interstellar gas in the Milky Way.
Bob was an integral and active part of the University of Virginia community. Since 1973, he enjoyed his work as a professor in University of Virginia's astronomy department, serving as department chair from 1999 until 2006. He taught a popular course called "Life Beyond Earth" and co-authored a book on extraterrestrial life. Bob's research spanned both theoretical studies of how stars evolve over time and observational studies of star clusters and interstellar gas in the Milky Way, as well as studying the abundances of elements cooked up during the Big Bang fireball that created our universe.
Bob was an avid photographer, and captured hundreds of images of UVA Astronomy faces during his 38 years in the department. In his honor, the Department's Graduate Research Symposium is now known as the Bob Rood Symposium. This is a day-long event featuring current graduate student research talks and a reception at McCormick Observatory.