{{Short description|American astronomer}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Wal Sargent | birth_name = Wallace Leslie William Sargent | native_name_lang = | image = Wallace_Sargent.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Sargent in 1973 | birth_date = {{birth date |1935|02|15}} | birth_place = Elsham, Lincolnshire, England | death_date = {{death date and age |2012|10|29 |1935|02|15}} | death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = <!--{{coord|LAT|LONG|type:landmark|display=inline,title}}--> | other_names = | residence = | citizenship = | nationality = | fields = | workplaces = California Institute of Technology<ref name=wws/> | patrons = | education = University of Manchester (BSc, PhD) | thesis_title = Some Problems in Cosmical Gas Dynamics | thesis_url = http://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/MU_VU1:BLENDED:44MAN_ALMA_DS21141920530001631 | thesis_year = 1959 | doctoral_advisor = Franz Daniel Kahn<ref name=mathgene>{{MathGenealogy|id=148316}}</ref><ref name=fdkahn>{{cite journal|last2=Lynden Bell|first2=Donald|year=1999|title=Franz Daniel Kahn. 13 May 1926 -- 8 February 1998: Elected F.R.S. 1993|journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society|volume=45|pages=255–267|doi=10.1098/rsbm.1999.0017|doi-access=free|issn=0080-4606|last1=Dyson|first1=James E.|s2cid=71566659|author-link1=James Dyson (physicist)|author-link2=Donald Lynden-Bell}}</ref> | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = {{Plainlist| * Alex Filippenko{{citation needed|date=August 2015}} * John Huchra<ref name=mathgene/> * Charles C. Steidel{{citation needed|date=August 2015}} }} | notable_students = | known_for = | influences = | influenced = | awards = FRS (1981)<ref name=frs>{{cite journal|last1=Lynden-Bell|first1=Donald|author-link1=Donald Lynden-Bell|title=Wallace Leslie William Sargent. 15 February 1935 — 29 October 2012|journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society|year=2015|publisher=Royal Society|location=London|volume=61|pages=467–483|issn=0080-4606|doi=10.1098/rsbm.2015.0018|doi-access=free|s2cid=86025150}}</ref> | spouse = {{marriage|Anneila Sargent|1964}} | partner = <!--(or | partners = )--> | children = | signature = <!--(filename only)--> | signature_alt = | website = {{URL|http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~wws}} | footnotes = }}
'''Wallace Leslie William Sargent''' {{postnominals|FRS}}<ref name=frs/> (February 15, 1935 – October 29, 2012) was a British-born American astronomer<ref>{{cite web |date=2012-10-30 |url=https://www.caltech.edu/content/caltech-mourns-passing-wallace-sargent |title=Caltech Mourns the Passing of Wallace L. W. Sargent |publisher=Caltech.edu |access-date=2012-10-31 |archive-date=2012-11-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121129012304/http://www.caltech.edu/content/caltech-mourns-passing-wallace-sargent |url-status=dead }}</ref> and the Ira S. Bowen Professor of Astronomy at California Institute of Technology.<ref name=wws/>
==Education== Sargent was born in Elsham, North Lincolnshire, the son of a gardener and a housecleaner, and grew up in Winterton, Lincolnshire.<ref name=latimes>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-wallace-sargent-20121110-story.html|title=Wallace L.W. Sargent dies at 77; Caltech astrophysicist|website=Los Angeles Times|date=10 November 2012 }}</ref> Sargent was the first person in his family to attend high school, and the first pupil from his high school – Scunthorpe Technical High School – to ever attend university.<ref name=iop>{{Cite journal|last=Steidel|first=Charles C.|date=2013|title=Wallace L. W. Sargent (1935–2012)|journal=Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific|language=en|volume=125|issue=925|pages=225–226|doi=10.1086/669931|issn=1538-3873|bibcode = 2013PASP..125..225S |doi-access=free}}</ref> He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Manchester in 1956, and his Ph.D. in 1959 from the same institution.<ref name=frs/>
==Career and research== Sargent spent the majority of his career at California Institute of Technology (Caltech),<ref name=wws>{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150428040515/http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~wws/|archive-date=2015-04-28|url=http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~wws/|title=Wallace Sargent's Homepage|publisher=Caltech}}</ref> excepting an absence of four years during which he claims to have had to go back to England to find himself a wife, Anneila Sargent.
Sargent carried out research in many areas of astronomy including stars, galaxies, quasars and active galactic nuclei, quasar absorption lines, and the intergalactic medium. He pioneered the detection of supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei using stellar dynamics, and published the first dynamical measurement of the mass of the black hole in the elliptical galaxy Messier 87.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Sargent|first1=W. L. W.|last2=Young|first2=P. J.|last3=Lynds|first3=C. R.|last4=Boksenberg|first4=A.|last5=Shortridge|first5=K|last6=Hartwick|first6=F. D. A.|title=Dynamical evidence for a central mass concentration in the galaxy M87|journal=The Astrophysical Journal|date=1978|volume=221|page=731|doi=10.1086/156077|bibcode = 1978ApJ...221..731S |doi-access=free}}</ref>
He supervised the theses of a number of students while at Caltech, including John Huchra,<ref name=mathgene/> Edwin Turner, Peter J. Young, Charles C. Steidel, and Alex Filippenko.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~wws/students.html |title=List of Sargent's PhD Students |website=astro.caltech.edu |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150709133219/http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~wws/students.html |archive-date=2015-07-09 }}</ref>
He was director of the Palomar Observatory from 1997 to 2000.
Donald Lynden-Bell, Roger Griffin, Neville Woolf, and Wal Sargent were in the film ''Star Men'' that documented some of their professional accomplishments at their fiftieth reunion to redo a memorable hike. The film also revealed the personalities of these men.
===Awards and honors=== *Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy (1969) *Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics (1991) *Bruce Medal (1994) *Henry Norris Russell Lectureship (2001) *Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1981<ref name=frs/> *The Asteroid 11758 Sargent is named in his honor
==Personal life== Sargent was married to fellow Caltech astronomer Anneila Sargent from 1964 until his death<!-- in Pasadena, California -->.<!-- Place of death needs to be verified. Sargent resided in Pasadena at 400 South Berkeley Ave. --> Although he became a U.S. citizen, he was born in Elsham, England.<ref name=wws/> He was an atheist.<ref>"Wallace Sargent". NNDB.com. Retrieved 17 July 2012.</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|35em}}
{{FRS 1981}} {{Authority control}} {{Clear}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sargent, Wallace}} Category:20th-century American astronomers Category:1935 births Category:2012 deaths Category:California Institute of Technology faculty Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Category:Alumni of the University of Manchester Category:English emigrants to the United States Category:20th-century British astronomers Category:People from Winterton, Lincolnshire Category:Winners of the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics Category:People from Elsham, North Lincolnshire Category:American fellows of the Royal Society