I am sorry to report the passing of Ralph Alpher, of the famous “Alpher-Bethe-Gamow” paper. I don’t know many details, but he’s been in poor health for some time, so this is sad but not surprising news.
Ralph Alpher was an astrophysicist and cosmologist whose thesis work with George Gamow on the origin of the universe was a critical early step in the development of the “Big Bang” theory. Alpher predicted the existence of the cosmic microwave background, and estimated its temperature (at 5K, not far from the correct value of 2.7 K) in 1948, nearly two decades before it was detected by Penzias and Wilson. He has won numerous awards for this work (though not a share of the Nobel), most recently the National Medal of Science and Technology for 2005 (though, oddly, it was awarded only this year).
Alpher spent most of his career working for General Electric. After his retirement from GE, he held the title of Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Union College. In 2004, he retired again, to Florida, and then to Texas.
On a personal note, I met Ralph only a few times (he used to have the office next to mine, but he rarely came in), but he was an engaging fellow, and led an interesting life. He had some very amusing stories about Gamow and others, and he was a pretty sharp guy. He was still working on physics as of 2004, the last time I spoke with him, and I hope I’m doing as well when I reach his age.
His funeral will be on Thursday in Albany, NY. That’s as much as I know now– the information is from his son, via friends of Ralph’s from his GE days, so don’t try getting it into Wikipedia– but if I see any obituaries, I’ll link to them.