Memories of Neil Gehrels

Memories of Neil Gehrels | Sign guestbook
Number of entries: 53 Number of pages: 6
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It is with great sadness that we mourn the passing of our colleague Neil Gehrels after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He passed away peacefully at home on the morning of Monday, February 6, 2017.

This page is a place to collect memories and thoughts of Neil from the large community of his friends and colleagues.

In lieu of flowers, people can send gifts in Neil's memory to the Anacostia Watershed Society.

Neil’s family will be holding a memorial service for him at 3:30 pm on Friday, March 10, in the Memorial Chapel at the University of Maryland at College Park, here the map for the service.
The family will be pleased to see those of you who are able to attend in person, and will have all of his friends and colleagues in their thoughts on the day.

Submitted by
Name: Eda Sonbas
From: Adiyaman University, Turkey
E-mail: Contact

Message:
My first contact with Neil was by email, in which I asked him for an opportunity to work with him as a post-doc. His reply was very positive and soon after that I started my Goddard adventure. Neil had given me a chance to turn the course of my scientific life in a new and a positive direction; he was always very supportive. During a particular conversation I got very happy when he said of me, 'Eda works very well and has improved a lot in a short time'… I could not imagine hearing those words from a scientist of his standing. There are so many good things to say about Neil that the words are simply not sufficient… Very hard to believe that we lost him… Too early and too sudden. “Neil”, I’d like to believe that you are now looking for answers to new scientific questions somewhere in the universe, may you “Rest in Peace”.

Added: February 9, 2017

Submitted by
Name: temp
From: NASA
E-mail: Contact

Message:
Neil is the reason I am a NASA civil servant today.
He recruited me in 2005 to work on the Fermi mission science at GSFC. I still remember our first meeting in his office, back in Bldg 2. One of the very first things he told me was that "a Civil Servant serves the American public, first and foremost". And this is what he did - serve the astrophysics community, all his professional life - with dedication and sacrifice. His exemplary service is an inspiration to all of us.

I will always remember Neil. He might be gone, but he will not be forgotten. Ciao Neil...

Added: February 9, 2017

Submitted by
Name: Daniele Malesani
From: Italy / Denmark
E-mail: Contact

Message:
I could remark the many accomplishments of Neil over the years. I will limit to remember fondly the plain, but warm and inspiring sound of his voice when he would say to somebody: "Oh, this is really a good idea, let's do it". You really ended up convinced to "do it". Thank you Neil for the many small and big inspirations that you passed along in the years.

Added: February 9, 2017

Submitted by
Name: Massimo Persic
From: INAF Trieste and U. Bologna, Italy
E-mail: Contact

Message:
I first met Neil in 1985 when I joined the HEA Laboratory at NASA/GSFC to work with Elihu Boldt. Neil at once struck me with his sheer intelligence, calm humor, light touch, and sense of steady forward momentum, in both conversation and action. Neil had a brilliant and visionary scientist's mind, and was a very decent human being. His ability to see how theory could be tested by space science made him a pre-eminent representative of Goddard scientists at their typical best. Neil will be long remembered, and sorely missed, in our HEA community.

Added: February 9, 2017

Submitted by
Name: Peter Leonard
From: NASA/GSFC

Message:
I first met Neil at the January 1994 AAS Meeting in Washington DC.

The last time I saw Neil was in July 2016 at Wolf Trap. He was a huge music lover.

Neil was a great scientist who knew how to bring out the best in other people.

Added: February 8, 2017

Submitted by
Name: Giovanna Senatore
From: Stanford University
E-mail: Contact

Message:
I still can't fully believe that Neil is not with us anymore. He was a wonderful person, always kind, supportive and cheerful. I was so impressed how, despite his prominent role and multiple commitments, he would always find the time to answer to every single e-mail sent to him. He was incredibly good at making each person feel important for every little achievement. He was used to valuing people in a way that was unique and looked so natural to him, and that was an inspiration for me. His warm smile made interacting with him so easy and nice. I had the pleasure to share, along with some other friends/colleagues, a few short outdoor climbing and windsurfing adventures with him. When Neil was climbing a rock, his smile was even bigger and in those moments he was so cheerful, once again making everybody around him happy. I miss him enormously and I'll never forget him.

Added: February 8, 2017

Submitted by
Name: Peter Meszaros
From: Pennsylvania State University
E-mail: Contact

Message:
Neil's loss is deeply affecting. His effective team leadership, command of the physics and technical details, and calm good humor were an inspiration for all of us. I was fortunate to be a co-author of his in a large number of Swift papers, including the first description of the spacecraft capabilities, as well as in a number of Fermi papers and a few review papers in recent years, and I will miss greatly his company.

Added: February 8, 2017

Submitted by
Name: Soebur Razzaque
From: South Africa
E-mail: Contact

Message:
I came to know Neil in 2004, during the year of the launch of Swift. At that time I was a postdoc at the Penn State University, where the Swift mission operation center is located. I still remember his talk from that time about the Swift-Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) and his joke about using an oversized door key to calibrate the gamma-ray image in BAT. Neil was also the chair of the Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) Collaboration's Senior Scientists Advisory Committee and we, LAT collaboration members, tremendously benefitted from his guidance on various scientific issues. He also threw his support for many ground-based robotic optical telescopes across the world to promptly follow up on gamma-ray bursts and other transient events. Neil and I worked closely together to write a review article on gamma-ray bursts back in 2013. Although he was focusing on observations and I was on theory, I found it extremely rewarding to work with him as his knowledge in the field was impeccable.

Neil accepted immediately when we invited him to give a talk at the High Energy Astrophysics (HEASA) 2016 conference at the SAAO in Cape Town (August 25-26, 2016). We are very fortunate indeed that he managed to come down to South Africa and give a wonderful talk.

His absence will be felt dearly among the space-based astronomy community as well as ground-based transient follow-up communities across the world. This is indeed a great loss for us.

Added: February 8, 2017

Submitted by
Name: Elena Pian
From: Pisa
E-mail: Contact

Message:
Neil will leave a long-lasting, significant mark in my life, both as a person and as a scientist.

First of all, Neil was a gentleman. He was always soft-spoken, kind and supportive to the young and senior, men and women alike. Despite his prominent figure, position and role, and his multiple commitments, he would remember and greet everybody with a big smile and would never show any sign of arrogance or even just condescendence.

Secondly, Neil was a great scientist. Without mentioning his many research and career achievements, his leadership of the Swift spacecraft operations was beyond service, it was rather a full-time personal engagement. The result is one of the most successful, probably *the* most successful, X-ray scientific missions in history. I dare say that Swift did to the astronomical community what the advent of TV made to humanity: just like TV represented a revolution in broadcast information and entertainment, Swift brought X-rays within easy reach of every astronomer. The merit goes to NASA, to the hundreds of people working for the good outcome of the satellite operations, but most of all, to Neil and his tireless coordination of the large Swift team.

In a sense, Neil was a "performing artist" of science: performing artists manage the most difficult interpretations yet making it appear as if it were the easiest task in the world. I was mostly impressed by Neil when, about a decade ago, in discussing with him the first Swift results, I asked him how he could manage such constant attention to the operations, timely reaction to all requests of observation, and the quick decision-making process. His answer was: "Oh, it's a lot of fun". I will never forget this lesson from Neil: never loose heart in front of difficulties and hardship, smile, focus on problems, solve them, and get going.

Added: February 8, 2017