List of University of Trinity College People - Faculty - Natural Sciences and Mathematics - Physics, Chemistry and Astronomy

Physics, Chemistry and Astronomy

• Helen Sawyer Hogg (professor of astronomy, 1936–76) – Astronomer; authority in the field of variable stars within globular clusters
• Leopold Infeld (professor of physics, 1939–50) – Physicist and peace activist; co-formulated the equation describing star movements and co-author of The Evolution of Physics with Albert Einstein
• Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon (professor of metallurgy, 1943–69) – Chemist who developed the Pidgeon process of magnesium metal production via a silicothermic reduction
• Andrew McKellar (visiting professor of physics, 1952–53) – Astronomer noted for his work in molecular spectroscopy, former president of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
• John Charles Polanyi (professor of chemistry, 1956–) – Physical chemist credited with developing the technique of infrared chemiluminescence to explain energy relationships in chemical reactions
• Sidney van den Bergh (professor of astronomy, 1958–77) – Astronomer who discovered Andromeda II; former president of the Canadian Astronomical Society
• Alan West Brewer (professor of physics, 1962–77) – Physicist and climatologist, whose observation of the stratosphere resulted in the Brewer-Dobson circulation model
• Ursula Franklin (professor of metallurgy and materials science, 1965–89) – Physicist who pioneered use of modern techniques of material analysis in archaeometry; pacifist and humanitarian since retirement
• Eduard Prugovecki (professor of physics, 1967–97) – Mathematical physicist in geometro-stochastic theory
• Robert K. Logan (professor of physics, 1968–2005) – Physicist and media ecologist, best known for his research in media ecology and the evolution of language, The Alphabet Effect
• Charles Thomas Bolton (professor of astronomy, 1973–) – Astronomer who was the first to present evidence of a black hole's existence in Cygnus X-1, later confirmed as the first black hole candidate
• Scott Tremaine (professor of astronomy, 1985–97) – Astrophysicist and contributor to the theory of solar system and galactic dynamics; first director of the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics
• Sajeev John (professor of physics, 1989–) – Together with Eli Yablonovitch, identified photonic crystals as a class of materials designed to affect the motion of photons
• Daniel Lidar (associate professor of chemistry, 2000–05) – Chemist and physicist, known for his research on control of quantum systems and quantum information processing
• John Moffat (professor of physics, retired) – Physicist, noted for his work on gravity and cosmology suggesting that the speed of light has varied in the past
• Ray Jayawardhana (professor of astronomy, 2005–) – Astronomer and Holder of the Canada Research Chair in observational astrophysics who reported the first direct image and spectroscopy of a likely extra-solar planet around a normal star
• Roberto Abraham (professor of astronomy) – Astronomer best known for his work on high-redshift galaxy morphology