An astrophysicist from North Lincolnshire who had an asteroid named after him has been honoured with a statue in the town he grew up in.
Wallace Sargent, 1935-2012, was a man who had a profound impact in increasing our understanding of space, from studying the phenomena of black holes, to how galaxies are formed. Almost the entirety of his life in scientific circles was spent in the USA, particularly California.
Known to friends and colleagues as “Wal”, began his life from humble beginnings in North Lincolnshire. He was born in Elsham and grew up for much of his childhood in Winterton, where he attended Winterton CoE Primary School.
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In a tribute to his origins and extraordinary contribution to astrophysics, a sculpture of Wal was unveiled earlier this month at Winterton Junior School. But before detailing the new Winterton feature, who was Wallace Sargent?
Working class origins
Wallace Sargent was born in 1935. His parents had not gone to school after the age of 14. His father, Leslie, was at an RAF airbase during World War II, and then worked at a Scunthorpe steel mill after the war. His mother, Eleanor, spent the war years cleaning the houses of people in surrounding villages.
The family, which included a younger brother, Gordon, moved to Winterton, where Wallace Sargent attended the Church of England primary from 1940-46. He progressed onto Scunthorpe Technical High School, which was principally focused with training up students for the steel industry. He began an undergraduate degree in Physics at the University of Manchester in 1953. According to a biographical memoir by graduate and colleague Charles C. Steidel for the US-based National Academy of Sciences, he was the first Scunthorpe Technical pupil to go university.
The USA and marriage
At the end of his undergraduate degree, he was awarded a fellowship to choose for graduate study. He chose astrophysics and completed his PhD in 1959.
After an initial brief stint in the US, he worked at Royal Greenwich Observatory, where he met in 1963 his wife, Anneila, with whom he had two daughters. He soon returned to the US and in 1966, he and his family moved to Pasadena, where he would spend the rest of his life as an astronomy professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
(Image: Winterton 2022)
Astrophysics achievements and asteroid named in his honour
During his time at Caltech, Wallace Sargent advanced scientific understanding of space in a number of areas. This included work on young galaxy formation and the dynamics of galaxies, and chemical gases in the cosmos, particularly helium.
Another study interest was supermassive black holes, the largest such type. Black holes are where gravity pulls so much that light itself cannot get out. He co-authored in the 1970s a technique to measure the mass of black holes that was still used as a basis for such measurements by the Hubble Telescope in later years.
Accolades include being made a fellow of the Royal Society in 1981 and an associate of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1998. In 2006, an asteroid discovered in 1960 was named after him: 11758 Sargent. It takes more than five and a half Earth years to complete its orbit around the sun.
In October 2012, Wallace Sargent died, having continued to teach until his final year.
Sculpture planning permission
The new sculpture in honour of him has had its own eventful journey. It was originally refused planning permission by councillors last year on the grounds it was out of character with Winterton Conservation Area. However, it was granted permission in February when part of North Lincolnshire Council appealed against that decision.
Michael Scrimshaw, an artist and sculptor based at The Ropewalk Gallery, Barton, spent two years creating it. It is 2m tall and made from hundreds of pieces of corten sheet steel. It was unveiled earlier this month, with Wallace Sargent’s widow Anneila present. An astronomer who specialises in star formation, she too has an asteroid named after her.
Winterton 2022, a group created in 2012 as part of 150 Local Trust ‘Big Local’ groups to improve communities each with £1m National Lottery cash to spend over ten years, spearheaded the sculpture. “The journey to unveil this statue was a labour of love, overcoming hurdles like planning permissions, finding a suitable location and the pandemic,” said Ian Dyer, Winterton 2022 chair.
“The sculpture stands as a symbol of our shared history and collective ambition, showing the story of one of our own who began humbly and achieved incredible things. It’s more than just a monument, it serves as a source of inspiration for our community, especially young people. It embodies Winterton 2022’s spirit, uniting to conquer challenges and inspiring others. It’s a reminder that no dream is too big.”
Appropriately, the sculpture depiction of Wallace Sargent has him looking up to the stars above.
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Original artice: https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/all-about/scunthorpe
