In a career in physics spanning 50 years, Peter Meyer’s most notable work was his research into cosmic rays–those mysterious particles that slam into Earth from outer space.
But Mr. Meyer, a professor emeritus at the University of Chicago, also was a skilled teacher. Astronaut John Grunsfeld, who has been maneuvering telescope equipment from the space shuttle Columbia, said in a message from space Friday that Mr. Meyer had been a mentor.
“He had a lifelong love of physics and passion for scientific adventure,” Grunsfeld said of his former professor. “The lessons Peter taught me in experimental physics are reflected in the difficult work we are doing on the Hubble Space Telescope here in Earth orbit.”
Mr. Meyer, 82, died Thursday, March 7, at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago after a stroke.
Unlike light, which travels in a straight line, cosmic rays are battered about by magnetic fields before hitting Earth, bombarding the planet from all directions.
In the 1960s, Mr. Meyer and a team of scientists, including colleague John A. Simpson, sent balloons 25 miles into the air to capture the incredibly powerful beams before they hit the atmosphere.
That work brought the discovery that there are electrons in cosmic rays. Later, Mr. Meyer found that positrons, rare particles that usually are found in terrestrial matter, also are part of the cosmic radiation.
In the mid-1980s, he was part of the team that helped launch an egg-shaped cosmic-ray detector on the Challenger space shuttle.
One reason his work was important, said fellow U. of C. scientist Roger Hildebrand, is that it gave insight into how magnetic fields affect the atmosphere.
Mr. Meyer spoke a number of languages, having grown up in Germany and attended a French-speaking school as a youth. He had a passion for music his whole life, playing the cello in a group in recent years.
He also inspired his students. “Students would pick up his excitement and enjoyed the adventures of what he was doing,” said Hildebrand, describing long trips to Canada to release balloons.
But the actual science most excited him, said his wife, Patricia Spear, a microbiologist. “There’s nothing like the high of discovering something new or putting things together the way no one had thought of before. That’s what he loved.”
Other survivors include two sons, Stephan and Andreas; a brother, Franz; a sister, Gabriele Vawter; and two grandchildren. A memorial service is pending.
