Fred Hoyle

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British 'Steady-State' Astronomer Fred Hoyle Dies
By SPACE.com staff and wire reports
posted: 08:26 am ET
22 August 2001


Fred Hoyle, the English astronomer credited with coining the phrase
``Big Bang'' to describe academic theory on the creation of the cosmos,
died Wednesday. He was 86.

Hoyle, a Cambridge University academic and science fiction writer,
objected to many conventional cosmological theories and became known for
his efforts to popularize science.

He challenged the belief that a huge explosion 12,000 million years ago
caused the cosmos, ironically giving the theory a name which would last,
the ``Big Bang.'' He coined the phrase while describing the theory on a
radio show.

Instead of the ``Big Bang,'' Hoyle advocated the ``steady state'' theory
that the cosmos had no beginning but that new galaxies were formed as
others moved apart, and in collaboration with Chandra Wickramasinghe he
has pioneered the modern theory of panspermia.

Although scientific evidence mounted against his stance, Hoyle was
acclaimed for much of his work on stars, galaxies, gravity and atoms.

He has held the position of Plumian Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge
University, and was also the founder of the Institute of Astronomy at
Cambridge. He was an Honorary Fellow of both Emmanuel College and
St.John's College Cambridge and an Honorary Professor at Cardiff
University of Wales.

Born in Yorkshire in northern England to wool merchant parents in 1915,
Hoyle could navigate by the stars by the time he was 10 and often stayed
up all night gazing at the stars through his telescope.

In 1968 Hoyle was awarded the UN Kalinga Prize, he also received the
Royal Medal of the Royal Society and the Gold Medal of the Royal
Astronomical Society.

In 1997 he was awarded the Crafoord Prize by the the Swedish Academy in
recognition of outstanding basic research in fields not covered by the
Nobel prize.

He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Foreign Associate of the U.S.
National Academy of Sciences. He has published over 40 books, including
technical science, popular science and science fiction.

"Hoyle can be credited with having led a revolution in British
astrophysics which at least banished an uncritical acceptance of
cosmological orthodoxy,'' the Times said in its obituary.

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