About
Fred Hoyle was a British astronomer and cosmologist, known for his major contributions to the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis and for popularizing the term 'Big Bang'. He formulated the steady-state theory with Thomas Gold and Hermann Bondi in 1948. He predicted the existence of an excited state of carbon-12, confirmed experimentally, and co-authored the landmark B²FH paper on the synthesis of elements in stars. He was also a prolific author of popular science and science fiction.
* 1915-06-24 — † 2001-08-20
Major works
- The Nature of the Universe (1950)popular science
- The Black Cloud (1957)science fiction novel
- A for Andromeda (1962)TV series (co-writer)
Key milestones
- 1948Formulated the steady-state theory with Thomas Gold and Hermann Bondi.
- 1957Co-authored the B²FH paper on stellar nucleosynthesis with Geoffrey and Margaret Burbidge and William Fowler.
- 1972Knighted by the Queen for his contributions to astronomy.
Themes
CosmologyStellar nucleosynthesisScience communicationScience fictionScientific controversy
Sources: britannica.com · catalogues.royalsociety.org · baas.aas.org