Hermann Bondi

Born on 1 November 1919 in Vienna, mathematician and cosmologist Hermann Bondi was one of the original proponents of the steady-state theory of the universe. Of Jewish descent, Bondi faced rampant anti-Semitism following Hitler’s rise to power in 1933. Encouraged by astrophysicist Arthur Eddington, who visited Vienna, Bondi applied to Cambridge University in the UK. After completing his undergraduate studies in 1940, Bondi was interned for more than a year, along with fellow Austrian astrophysicist Thomas Gold , as an enemy alien by the British government, mostly in Canada. After Bondi was released in 1941, he returned to England, where he went to work on radar research for the Admiralty with Gold and astronomer Fred Hoyle . In 1943 Bondi became a research fellow at Trinity College, in 1945 he was appointed as assistant lecturer in mathematics at Cambridge, and in 1954 he became professor of mathematics at King’s College, London, where he would remain for the next three decades until his retirement in 1985. In the 1940s Bondi, Hoyle, and Gold developed the steady-state theory, which proposed that the universe remains the same for all time, with matter being continually created to compensate for cosmic expansion. The steady-state theory couldn’t explain subsequent discoveries, particularly the cosmic microwave background, and so didn’t hold up against the Big Bang theory. Bondi’s other research included applying mathematics to relativity theory, particularly in analyzing gravitational waves. In addition to his academic career, he was very active in public service. He served as secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society, director general of the European Space Research Organisation, chair of the Natural Environment Research Council, and more. He was also Master of Churchill College, Cambridge, from 1983 to 1990. Among the many honors he received over his career were the 1983 Albert Einstein Medal, the 1988 Gold Medal of the Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications, and the 2001 Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1959 and knighted in 1973. Bondi died in 2005 at age 85. (Photo credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Physics Today Collection)

Date in History: 1 November 1919