Bernard Ephraim Julius Pagel FRS (4 January 1930 – 14 July 2007) was a British astrophysicist who worked on the measurement and interpretation of elemental abundances in stars and galaxies.

Life

The son of physician and medical historian

Walter Pagel Walter Traugott Ulrich Pagel (12 November 1898 – 25 March 1983) was a German pathologist and medical historian. Pagel was born in Berlin, the son of the famous physician and historian of medicine Julius Leopold Pagel. He married Dr. Magda Koll ...

and grandson of German physician

Julius Leopold Pagel Julius Leopold Pagel (29 May 1851, Pollnow – 30 January 1912, Berlin) was a German physician and historian of medicine. Pagel was educated at the gymnasium at Stolp and at the University of Berlin (M.D. 1875). In 1876 he established himse ...

, he was born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

in 1930, but moved with his family to Britain in 1933 to avoid the growing Jewish persecution in Germany at that time. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School in Northwood and at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, from which he graduated with first-class honours in Physics in 1950. He remained in Cambridge to pursue his doctoral studies, obtaining his PhD in 1955. He was a Research Fellow at Sidney Sussex college from 1953-1956. In 1956, he moved to the Royal Greenwich Observatory at

Herstmonceux Castle Herstmonceux Castle is a brick-built castle, dating from the 15th century, near Herstmonceux, East Sussex, England. It is one of the oldest significant brick buildings still standing in England. The castle was renowned for being one of the fir ...

where he spent the greater part of his career, eventually progressing to the grade of Deputy Chief Scientific Officer. In 1967, he became a Visiting Reader (and later Visiting Professor) in Astronomy at Sussex University. Upon his retirement from the Royal Greenwich Observatory in 1990, he moved to a Chair at the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (NORDITA) in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. He retired for a second time in 1998 and moved back to Sussex, but remained scientifically active up until his death. In 1990, he was awarded the

Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society The Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society is the highest award given by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS). The RAS Council have "complete freedom as to the grounds on which it is awarded" and it can be awarded for any reason. Past awar ...

, the Society's highest award, and in 1992 he was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

. Pagel died in

Ringmer Ringmer is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England.OS Explorer map Eastbourne and Beachy Head Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. The village is east of ...

, East Sussex.

References

* Edmunds, Mike
"Professor B. E. J. Pagel"
"The Independent", August 22, 2007. Accessed November 10, 2007. * Edmunds, M. G. (2020).
Bernard Ephraim Julius Pagel. 4 January 1930—14 July 2007
. ''Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society''. 69. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pagel, Bernard 1930 births 2007 deaths 20th-century British astronomers People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Recipients of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society Fellows of the Royal Society People from Ringmer