Background

Professor Dalgarno, welcome to Berkeley.

Thank you.

Tell us a little about your background. Where were you born and raised?

I was born in London, and I grew up there. And I went to the university there.

Looking back, how do you think your parents shaped your thinking about the world?

Very little. They were not academic in any way. I was the first member of my family to go to a university.

Did you have teachers who pushed you towards science or math?

Yes, yes, I had very good teachers. There was one or two, in particular, who were very abled and very certainly encouraged my interest in mathematics and science.

Where were you educated?

My school was an ordinary high school or grammar school in the north of London. I went to University College, London, which is part of the University of London.

What was your field of study there?

Mathematics.

So what got you from mathematics to astrophysics? Was that a natural path to follow?

Well, it was, though it took me a long time to follow it. I started the research in what's called atomic molecular and optical physics -- theoretical research. I was quite good at mathematics, and so I used my mathematical skills to carry out research. Then I was offered a position at the Queen's University of Belfast, as a member of the faculty there. There was a senior figure, David Bates, Sir David Bates, actually, he became, who was interested in questions of the upper atmosphere -- aeronomy -- and he was the world's expert in that. So I learned from him about that topic and recognized that I could use what I knew in atomic physics and astrophysics to treat some of the issues, some of the questions that arose. And so I did for a long time.

One of the asked questions that arose is how one could use remote observations, observations of something happening at a distance. You couldn't do a mathematical experiment on the earth. You had to infer what was going on just by interpreting distant observations. So my interest essentially grew from just the study of our own atmosphere virtually to the atmospheres of the planets.

You were saying earlier that it was just a coincidence that you actually went from math to astronomy. Tell us that story.

I had completed my Bachelors degree in Mathematics. I had a year of scholarship or fellowship of some kind with which I could do what I pleased. I thought what I really wanted to do for a year, simply, almost as an entertainment, was geometry, which I very much enjoyed as a subject. But as I spent the time, I began to feel that this was just an intellectual game, that it wasn't a particularly valuable exercise. I wanted to do something more applied to solve real problems, instead of problems that I made up for myself; problems that naturally existed. And so I spent a time to study physics. So I went from this concentration on mathematics and only mathematics, to learn some physics.

During that time, of course, I had to decide what I was going to do, what my future occupation might be. I hadn't really thought about it, except I knew I had to get some kind of job. I happened to be just walking to the corridors of the Physics Department and I encountered Sir Harry Massey, who is a very distinguished physicist, and who was also head of the department. He stopped me and asked me what I was going to do from now, once I'd finished this advanced course. I said I didn't know; I supposed I would have to get a job of some kind. He said he had some money and why didn't I try research, and he would support me for, say, three years, during which time I could get a Ph.D. to do atomic physics. I had no idea what atomic physics was at that time. But because of that, I said, "Well, yes, that sounds different." I said, "It might be interesting," and at least it set aside this vexing question of what sort of job I was going to get.

So I agreed, and I still wasn't very serious about it. It was really entertainment. I was, in a sense, postponing my entry into the real world. Anyway, the story is that I got thoroughly absorbed by it, I found it very stimulating and exciting, and I started to work very hard for the first time in my life. And I've been working very hard ever since. So it was this chance encounter. I have no idea what would have happened if it hadn't been for that chance encounter.

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