Geoffrey Burbidge

Geoffrey Ronald Burbidge FRS (24 September 1925 – 26 January 2010) was an English astronomy professor and theoretical astrophysicist, most recently at the University of California, San Diego. He was married to astrophysicist Margaret Burbidge.

Burbidge was born in Chipping Norton Oxfordshire, a small market town in the Cotswolds roughly midway between Oxford and Stratford-on-Avon, where he attended grammar school. His father was Geoffrey Ronald Burbidge, a builder.

He first attended the University of Bristol to study history, but changed to physics, receiving his degree in 1946. In 1947, he went to London and received his Ph.D. from University College London (UCL) in 1951. While at UCL he worked with Professor H. S. W. Massey who was then head of the department of mathematics.

During this period, he met Margaret Peachey and they married in 1948.

The Burbidges worked at Harvard, the University of Chicago, and Cambridge University, before Margaret obtained work at the California Institute of Technology, while Geoffrey worked at the Mount Wilson Observatory and Palomar Observatory.

They both obtained positions at the University of California, San Diego, in 1962.

He was the Director of Kitt Peak National Observatory from 1978 to 1984.

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