Daily Image
27-08-2020
In Memoriam: Lloyd Higgs (1937-2020)
| Submitter: | Tony Willis, Jan Noordam |
| Description: | Lloyd Higgs was born in New Brunswick, Canada, in 1937. He was selected as a Rhodes Scholar in 1958 and spent three years in Oxford, where he earned his Doctorate in Solar Astronomy in 1961. At a Dutch workshop on galactic structure he met Professors Oort and van der Hulst, and was bitten by the radio astronomy bug. After returning to Canada he worked for the National Research Council in Ottawa until 1980. He then moved to Penticton, British Columbia, where he was director of the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (DRAO) until 1994. His strong, quiet leadership left the observatory a tremendous legacy. He also was a very friendly and approachable individual. Lloyd had an additional Dutch connection: Like so many of the Greats of radio astronomy, he spent a year and a half in Leiden in the sixties. There he made extensive measurements of the Dwingeloo telescope beam at the frequency of 820 MHz. These were published in a BAN article in 1967 and were used to correct the 820 MHz all-sky survey data published by Elly Berkhuijsen in her 1971 Leiden PhD thesis. A young Wim Brouw assisted Lloyd in using the computer to reduce the data he collected. Lloyd himself later became an expert software developer. Together with the late Govert (Geoff) Croes he developed a complete data reduction system for the DRAO Synthesis Telescope (DST) that is still in use today. He was a key player in the DST and the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey. The photo shows him as he would often be found in the 1990s, hard at work solving a software problem. Rhodes Scholars tend to be people with a strong interest in public service and Lloyd was no exception. As a teenager in 1953, he was chosen, from among the Queen Scouts of New Brunswick, to attend the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, an occasion he would never forget. Later in life he contributed extensively to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and was an active member of the Rotary Club in Penticton. Active and adventurous to the last, he enjoyed golf, skiing, travel, hiking, tennis, sailing, food, drink, family and friends. A life well-lived by any measure. |
| Copyright: | nn |
| Tweet |  |