Sturrock, Peter A. 1924-

(Peter Andrew Sturrock)

PERSONAL:

Born March 20, 1924, in South Stifford, Essex, England; immigrated to the United States, 1949; naturalized U.S. citizen, 1963; son of Albert Edward and Mabel Minnie Sturrock; married Marilyn Fern Stenson, June 23, 1963; children: (first marriage) Myra, (second marriage) Deirdre, Colin. Ethnicity: "English/Scottish." Education: Cambridge University, B.A., 1945, M.A., 1948, Ph.D., 1951.

ADDRESSES:

Office—c/o Center for Space Science and Astrophysics, Varian 302, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94035. E-mail—sturrock@.stanford.edu.

CAREER:

Telecommunications Research Establishment, Malvern, England, scientist, 1943-46; National Bureau of Standards, Washington, DC, scientist, 1949-50; Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, England, scientist, 1951-53; Cambridge University, Cambridge, England, fellow of St. John's College,, 1952-55; Stanford University, Stanford, CA, research associate, 1955-61, professor of applied physics and engineering science 1961-66, professor of space science and astrophysics, 1966-98, director of plasma research, 1964-74 and 1980-83, and deputy director of Center for Space Science and Astrophysics, 1983-92, director, 1992-98. Varian Associates, consultant, 1957-64; National Aeronautics and Space Administration, consultant, 1962-64, member of Physical Science Committee, and director of solar flare division of Skylab Workshop, 1976-77; Enrico Fermi Summer School for Plasma-Astrophysics, director, 1966.

MEMBER:

International Astronomical Union (fellow), American Astronomical Society (chair of Solar Physics Division, 1974-75), American Physics Society (fellow; chair of Plasma Physics division, 1965-66), Society for Scientific Exploration (founder; president, 1981-2001), American Association for the Advancement of Science (fellow), Royal Astronomy Society (fellow).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Ford Fellow in plasma physics, European Center for Nuclear Research, 1957-58; Gravity Prize, Gravity Foundation, 1967; George Ellery Hale Prize, American Astronomical Society, 1986; Henryk Arctowski Medal, National Academy of Sciences, 1990; Space Science Award, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1992; Dinsdale Prize, Society for Scientific Exploration, 2006.

WRITINGS:

Static and Dynamic Electron Optics: An Account of Focusing in Lens, Deflector and Accelerator, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England), 1955.

(Editor) Plasma Astrophysics, Academic Press (New York, NY), 1967.

(Editor) Solar Flares: A Monograph from Skylab Solar Workshop II, Colorado Associated University Press (Boulder, CO), 1980.

(Coeditor) Physics of the Sun, Kluwer Academic Publishers (Hingham, MA), 1986.

Plasma Physics: An Introduction to the Theory of Astrophysical, Geophysical, and Laboratory Plasmas, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1994.

The UFO Enigma: A New Review of the Physical Evidence, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1999.

SIDELIGHTS:

An expert in plasma physics, Peter A. Sturrock is the author of a number of highly technical books aimed at an academic readership. Yet Sturrock is also the founder of a rather unusual group known as the Society for Scientific Exploration, whose members convene regularly to discuss unexplained phenomena, such as unidentified flying objects and psychokinesis. As is the case with Sturrock himself—a professor of space science and astrophysics—Society for Scientific Exploration members include some of the most prominent scientists and researchers in North America.

In the mid-1970s, Sturrock served as director of the solar flare division for the Skylab Workshop. The first Skylab project, launched in 1973, was a staffed space station that orbited the earth for several weeks. His work on the project led to his edited work, Solar Flares: A Monograph from Skylab Solar Workshop II. Plasma physics and solar flares are related topics in astrophysics. Plasma—an interstellar gas found inside stars that contains positive and negative ions—serves as conductor of electric charges. It is affected by magnetic forces, and in the age of nuclear physics has emerged as a vital element in controlled fusion experiments. Correspondingly, the solar system to which the Earth belongs is powered by the sun, a star whose temperature is so intense that scientists believe it is powered by its own cycle of nuclear reactions. Measuring solar flares, to which Sturrock has devoted much of his career research, provides a way for scientists to explore the potential of solar energy for the purposes of developing alternative energy sources and facilitating space travel.

Sturrock was also the primary editor for Physics of the Sun. Commissioned by the National Academy of Sciences, the three-volume work was designed to present the most current scientific knowledge and theories about the star up to 1986. Its twenty-two chapters touch upon all aspects of solar science, from conjectures about its formation, discussions of the sun's interior structures, the significance of magnetic fields surrounding it, and the aforementioned solar flares and their relevance. Reviews of Sturrock's project were positive. Robert F. Howard, evaluating it for Science, called it "a fundamental, authoritative reference and review for the broad field of solar physics. It was an ambitious project and it has been successful."

Sturrock has also engaged in more informal professional activities with his Society for Scientific Exploration. "If scientists are going to accept the task of trying to find responsible answers to anomalous phenomena, it is essential that these claims be subjected to the normal processes of science and scholarship, including open debate, publication and criticism," Sturrock told Science Digest writer Patrick Huyghe. "That's what this society hopes to provide—a forum through which research on these questions may be presented to the community of scientists and scholars."

Sturrock penned The UFO Enigma: A New Review of the Physical Evidence. Its contents were his distillation of proceedings from a Society for Scientific Exploration conference held in New York in 1997. The academic writings were condensed into 120 pages for a lay readership. As its title implies, the papers presented at the gathering discussed numerous phenomena in the sky believed by many ordinary citizens to be spacecraft from other galaxies. Some of the findings theorize that the lights in the night sky or large, glowing airborne objects are simply weather-related phenomena. But some sections of the book do give credence to the idea that modern science may simply not yet know enough about the universe to discredit the existence of other life forms elsewhere. A Publishers Weekly review commented about the somewhat dry language of The UFO Enigma, but noted that the findings abridged by Sturrock here "represent a hoard of raw information, and some admirably cautious reasoning, from which any reader who already cares about UFOs might be glad to learn."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Scientist, September-October, 1987, George L. Withbroe, review of Physics of the Sun, Vol. 2, pp. 526-527; May-June 1988, George L. Withbroe, review of Physics of the Sun, Vol. 3, pp. 296-297.

Nature, September 18, 1986, review of Physics of the Sun, pp. 210-211.

Publishers Weekly, October 11, 1999, review of The UFO Enigma: A New Review of the Physical Evidence, p. 62.

Science, August 23, 1968, review of Plasma Astrophysics, p. 776; May 2, 1980, Charles L. Hyder, review of Solar Flares: A Monograph from Skylab Solar Workshop II, p. 491; July 25, 1986, review of Physics of the Sun, p. 483; January 19, 1996, David Montgomery, review of Plasma Physics: An Introduction to the Theory of Astrophysical, Geophysical, and Laboratory Plasmas, p. 309.

Science Digest, December, 1983, article by Patrick Huyghe, p. 68.

Sky and Telescope, June, 1986, review of Physics of the Sun, p. 620.

Times Higher Education Supplement, November 11, 1994, Roger Blandford, review of Plasma Physics, p. 30.