David Schramm (astrophysicist)

David Schramm
Born	October 25, 1945 St. Louis, Missouri
Died	December 19, 1997 Denver, Colorado
Nationality	United States
Fields	astrophysics
Alma mater	Caltech
Known for	dark matter, Big Bang
Notable awards	Robert J. Trumpler Award

David Norman Schramm (25 October 1945 – 19 December 1997) was an American astrophysicist and educator, and one of the world's foremost experts on the Big Bang theory. Schramm was a pioneer in the study of Big Bang nucleosynthesis and its use as a probe of dark matter (both baryonic and non-baryonic) and of neutrinos. He also made important contributions to the study of cosmic rays, supernova explosions, and heavy-element nucleosynthesis.

Biography

David Schramm was born in St. Louis, Missouri and earned his master's degree in physics from the MIT in 1967.^[1] He earned a Ph.D in physics at Caltech in 1971 under Willy Fowler. After a brief time as faculty at the University of Texas at Austin he accepted a professorship at the University of Chicago, where he spent the rest of his career.

Schramm received the Robert J. Trumpler Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in 1974, the Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy from the American Astronomical Society in 1978, and he was awarded the Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize from the American Physical Society in 1993.

Schramm, an avid private pilot, died on 19 December 1997, when his Swearingen-Fairchild SA-226 crashed near Denver, Colorado.^[1] He was the sole occupant of the aircraft. The National Transportation Safety Board found the cause to be pilot error. At the time of his death he was Vice President for Research and Louis Block Distinguished Service Professor in the Physical Sciences at the University of Chicago.

Legacy

The David N. Schramm Award for High Energy Astrophysics Science Journalism was created in his honour in the year 2000 by the High-Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society.^[2]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "David N. Schramm, 1945-1997". The University of Chicago News Office. December 22, 1997 (1997-12-22). http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/97/971222.schramm.shtml. 
2. ^ "The David N. Schramm Award for High Energy Astrophysics Science Journalism.". http://www.aas.org/head/schramm/schramm.prize.html. "The High-Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society (HEAD/AAS) is proud to announce the creation of a prize named after David N. Schramm to recognize and stimulate distinguished writing on high-energy astrophysics. The prize is established to improve the general public’s understanding of this exciting field of research. The prize is awarded at every meeting of the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society." 

Persondata
Name	Schramm, David
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	October 25, 1945
Place of birth	St. Louis, Missouri
Date of death	December 19, 1997
Place of death	Denver, Colorado