Gerrit Verschuur
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Gerrit L. Verschuur (born in 1937 in
Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...
, South Africa) is an American scientist who is best known for his work in
radio astronomy Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies Astronomical object, celestial objects using radio waves. It started in 1933, when Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories reported radiation coming from the Milky Way. Subsequent observat ...
. Though a pioneer in that field, Verschuur is also an author (he has written about
astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...
, natural disasters, and
earth science Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spheres ...
s), inventor,
adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, but the term is gen ...
of
physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
for the
University of Memphis The University of Memphis (Memphis) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 20,000 students. The university maintains the Herff Col ...
, and Astronomer Emeritus - Arecibo Observatory and now semi-retired. He served for a time as the Chief Scientist for Translucent Technologies, LLC; a company which is based in
Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...
.Uncommonly Lakeland
In 1992 Verschuur became a resident of the City of Lakeland, which is located in
Shelby County, Tennessee Shelby County is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 929,744. It is the largest of the state's List of counties in Tennessee, 95 counties, both in terms of ...
, northwest of Memphis. In 2001 Verschuur was elected, and served a four-year term as commissioner. In 2007 he was elected again and served for a total of 10 years. In Lakeland, Verschuur was also the President of th
Garner Lake Association
Since 1986 he has been married to Dr. Joan Schmelz, a fellow scientist whose specialty is
solar astronomy The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light an ...
, specifically
coronal loop In solar physics, a coronal loop is a well-defined arch-like structure in the Sun's Stellar atmosphere, atmosphere made up of relatively dense Plasma (physics), plasma confined and isolated from the surrounding medium by magnetic flux tubes. Co ...
s. Verschuur has one son who lives in England. During his years living beside the lake in Lakeland he made a fundamental discovery concerning the manner in which light interacts with a so-called Secchi Disk that is used to measure the transparency of lake and ocean waters. The disk had been invented in the mid-nineteenth century by a Jesuit priest (Angela Secchi) but no one before Verschuur had understand the optics underlying the measurement technique. Verschuur has taught at the
University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...
,
Rhodes University Rhodes University () is a public research university located in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, Rhodes University is the prov ...
, the universities of Colorado and Maryland,
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
, and the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
, among others. (''See: Verschuur'') He has been an annual speaker a
Mid-South Stargaze
"the annual amateur astronomers conference and star party held at Rainwater Observatory in French Camp, Mississippi." In 1971 Verschuur was hired as the first Director of
Fiske Planetarium Fiske Planetarium is one of the largest planetariums in the United States, educating the public on astronomy and astrophysics since 1975. They offer a diverse range of fulldome films, live talks, laser and liquid sky music shows, as well as publ ...
for the
University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a Public university, public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a Federated state, state, it is the fla ...
, and in 1980 he worked with Dr. John C. Lilly. In his primary field of study Verschuur "pioneered the measurement of the interstellar magnetic field using the 21-cm
Zeeman effect The Zeeman effect () is the splitting of a spectral line into several components in the presence of a static magnetic field. It is caused by the interaction of the magnetic field with the magnetic moment of the atomic electron associated with ...
technique." A thing which, according to
Virginia Trimble Virginia Louise Trimble (born November 15, 1943) is an American astronomer specializing in the structure and evolution of stars and galaxies, and the history of astronomy. She has published more than 600 works in Astrophysics, and dozens of oth ...
, for the first time allowed
astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...
s to "measure magnetic strengths and their place-to-place variations with some confidence."


Biography

Gerrit L. Verschuur was born in 1937 in Cape Town, South Africa, at the foot of
Table Mountain Table Mountain (; ) is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa. It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors using the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, cableway or hik ...
. In 1936, his parents had emigrated from the Netherlands and settled in Cape Town. Two years after he was born—in 1939—his parents moved again, choosing a suburb of Cape Town named Lakeside. While he was living there, Verschuur attended Muizenberg Junior School. Then, when his parents moved to
Port Elizabeth Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipal ...
in 1950, he attended Grey Junior and subsequently Grey High School. After graduation he began a six-year stint at
Rhodes University Rhodes University () is a public research university located in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, Rhodes University is the prov ...
in
Grahamstown Makhanda, formerly known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 75,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Gqeberha and southwest of East London. It is the largest town in the Makana Local Mun ...
where he earned a BSc in 1957—Majors:
Math Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
,
Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
, &
Applied math Applied mathematics is the application of mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a combination of mathematical sc ...
; a
BSc (Hons) A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...
of Physics in 1958; and a MSc degree of physics, in 1960. In December 1960 he sailed for
Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...
, England on Edinburgh Castle, a ship owned by the Union Castle Line. It was one of the last passenger mail boats to ply the SA-England route, but was sold for scrap in 1967.


Current research

Verschuur is at the center of a recent debate over the age of the universe. He claimed that images from the
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), originally known as the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP and Explorer 80), was a NASA spacecraft operating from 2001 to 2010 which measured temperature differences across the sky in the cosmic mic ...
are not pictures of the universe in its early form, but rather
hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...
gas clouds in our own
galaxy A galaxy is a Physical system, system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar medium, interstellar gas, cosmic dust, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek ' (), literally 'milky', ...
. If he is shown to be correct, much work relating to the
Big Bang theory The Big Bang is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models based on the Big Bang concept explain a broad range of phenomena, including the ...
would be undermined. On December 10, 2007, his work with respect to COBE, WMAP, and HI, was published in
The Astrophysical Journal ''The Astrophysical Journal'' (''ApJ'') is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of astrophysics and astronomy, established in 1895 by American astronomers George Ellery Hale and James Edward Keeler. The journal discontinued its print edition and ...
. However, Land and Slosar claimed that the data did not support the correlation claimed by Verschuur. He subsequently published 4 more papers on the subject backing up his claims. His current research is conducted in partnership with Joan Schmelz, his wife, and elaborates on the exciting discovery they made that the so-called high-velocity clouds are produced by supernova events that occurred relatively close to the Sun, of order hundreds of light years distant, several hundred thousand years ago. They solved the 60 year-old mystery concerning the distance to certain clouds when they found that neutron stars (left over after the explosion) exists in spectroscopic binary systems, the primary example having been discovered by researchers in Belgium led by Ana Escorza who used GAIA data to identify likely neutron star candidates.


Selected publications


Books

* ''The Invisible Universe: The Story of Radio Astronomy.''
Springer-Verlag Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing. Originally founded in 1842 in ...
, New York, 1974"Nominated for
National book award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...
– then disqualified because I was not a US citizen at the time." * ''Galactic and Extragalactic Radio Astronomy.'' Springer-Verlag, New York, 1974. Co-edited with K.I. Kellerman
*''Cosmic Evolution: An Introduction to Astronomy.''
Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...
, 1978. Co-Author with George B. Field and Cyril Ponnamperuma
*''Starscapes.''
Little Brown Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries, it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...
& Co., Boston, 1977http://www.reciprocalsystem.com/nfs/references.html (See: #74.) *''Cosmic Catastrophes.''
Addison Wesley Addison–Wesley is an American publisher of textbooks and computer literature. It is an imprint of Pearson plc, a global publishing and education company. In addition to publishing books, Addison–Wesley also distributes its technical titles ...
Longman Publishing Co., 1978 *''Interstellar Matters: Essays on Curiosity and Astronomical Discovery.'' Springer-Verlag, 1989 *''Hidden Attraction: The History and Mystery of Magnetism.''
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 1996, (First Published 1993) *''Impact!: The Threat of Comets and Asteroids.'' Oxford University Press, 1996 *''The Invisible Universe: The Story of Radio Astronomy.'' Springer, 2nd. ed., 2007


Encyclopaedia articles

*"Interstellar Medium" ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (15th edition) Volume I-J. pp 790–800, 1973 *"Interstellar Matter" ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (Asian edition) 1986 *"Magnetic Fields and Galactic Structure." ''Reference Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics.'' Ed. S. Maran, Van Nostrand Rheinhold, New York, 1992


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Verschuur, Gerrit 1937 births Living people Academics of the University of Manchester Academic staff of Rhodes University Alumni of the University of Manchester American astronomers People from Gqeberha Radio astronomers Rhodes University alumni Scientists from Cape Town South African astronomers South African people of Dutch descent University of Memphis faculty