ACHIEVING THE RARE: ROBERT F CHRISTY'S JOURNEY IN PHYSICS AND BEYOND

Robert F Christy was a fascinating physicist who was one of the key players in some of the most dramatic events of the 20th century.He was one of Oppenheimer's students, whom Oppenheimer hailed as “one of the best in the world.” He was a co-creator of the world's first nuclear reactor and the first atom bombs, of which the most practical design was called the “Christy Gadget.” Later, he became a leader in the effort to contain nuclear proliferation, leading up to the SALT talks, and headed a study on long-term health effects of radiation crucial for medical safety standards. He also made pioneering contributions in the field of astrophysics, working on the variable stars (Cepheids) that are key distance indicators in the universe.Robert was equally fascinating as a person. He remarried at nearly 60 to an astrophysicist 26 years younger from some 6,000 miles initial separation. They had two daughters late in his life. Robert stayed active both professionally and physically into his nineties. He would still gallop on his horse at the age of 93.This biography is brought alive not only with words, but also with the many treasured photographs of Robert, his family, and his colleagues.

I-Juliana Christy was born in the eastern part of Germany during World War II. Her mother immigrated to Canada with her three young daughters in 1955 when Juliana was 13 years old. Juliana studied physics, astronomy, and astrophysics at the University of Toronto, obtaining a PhD in astrophysics in 1968. She first encountered Prof. Robert Christy at an international astrophysics meeting in Toronto at this time.

Juliana was awarded a NATO Fellowship and worked in Germany as a post-doctoral research fellow with Prof. Rudolf Kippenhahn at the University of Göttingen and at the Heisenberg Biermann Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics in Munich. In 1970 she met Prof. Robert Christy again at international conferences in England and Portugal. Juliana won a Senior von Humboldt Award in 1971, and at the end of that year came to the US to work with Prof. William A Fowler at Caltech as a postdoctoral fellow in nuclear astrophysics. Since then Juliana has continued her research in astrophysics as a Caltech faculty member.

Robert and Juliana were married in 1973; she was 31 and he was 57. Over the ext four decades they built a family together, enriching each others' lives.