David Schramm

Born on 25 October 1945 in St Louis, Missouri, David Schramm was an influential astrophysicist who helped meld the fields of particle physics and cosmology. After earning his BS from MIT in 1967 and his PhD from Caltech in 1971, Schramm taught for two years at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1974 he joined the faculty at the University of Chicago, becoming a full professor and chair of the astronomy and astrophysics department in 1977 and vice president for research in 1995. Schramm began his research career by focusing on the creation of heavy elements in supernovae and their use in dating the age of the universe. His most widely recognized work centered on the production of the lightest elements immediately following the Big Bang. Schramm’s study of Big Bang nucleosynthesis led to its use as a probe of dark matter and neutrinos. His 1977 proposal of the Big Bang limit on the number of light neutrino species would be verified 12 years later by experiments at CERN and SLAC. He coauthored a book on the connection between elementary-particle physics and cosmology, Quarks and the Cosmos (1990), with particle experimentalist Leon Lederman . Schramm received numerous honors and awards, including the 1978 Helen B. Warner Prize from the American Astronomical Society and the 1993 Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize from the American Physical Society. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1986 and became chair of the National Research Council’s Board on Physics and Astronomy in 1989. He contributed to more than 350 scientific papers and 15 books. Schramm was also a champion collegiate wrestler, keen mountaineer, expert skier, and avid pilot. He died at age 52 in 1997 when his plane crashed. (AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, John Irwin Slide Collection)

Date in History: 25 October 1945