Dear friends and colleagues,
It is with great sadness that I share the news that Erich W. Vogt passed away this morning at Vancouver General Hospital.
As one of the pioneering founders of the lab, Erich was a huge part of the TRIUMF family as well as that of UBC and the broader physics community around the world. He contributed to each and every person he met with warmth, advice, and a wry joke or story that put everything into perspective. I expect that many people will be affected by this loss and will want to pause and reflect on the ways that Erich touched their lives.
At UBC, the BC Flag (Main Mall and Agronomy Road) will be lowered February 20-21, in memory of Erich.
In lieu of flowers, donations will be accepted for the Erich Vogt First Year Student Research Experience Endowment, which will give outstanding first-year students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience working on a summer research project. This site can also collect digital memories to honour and celebrate Erich.
A public celebration of Erich's life is planned for Saturday, March 8, 2-4 p.m., at Sage Bistro on the UBC Campus. All who knew Erich are welcome. RSVPs are encouraged.
Respectfully,
Jim
Jim Hanlon
CEO/CAO and
Head, Business & Administration Division
Background about Erich W. Vogt
- Vancouver Sun news item (Feb 20, 2014)
- UBC news item (Feb 19, 2014)
- UBC Legcay Project Video Interivew (2013)
- TRIUMF 40th Anniversary Video Interview (2009)
Erich W. Vogt, best known among his many accomplishments for being a co-founder of the TRIUMF laboratory and its longest-serving Director, passed away peacefully February 19, 2014 in Vancouver General Hospital. He was 84 years old.
Erich Wolfgang Vogt was born in Steinbach, Manitoba on November 12, 1929, the second (with a twin brother) of six boys. He received his academic degrees at the University of Manitoba (B.Sc. Honours 1951, M.Sc. 1952), where he was awarded the Gold Medal in Science upon his graduation, and at Princeton University (Ph.D. 1955) as the student of Eugene Wigner, with whom he attended the last scientific lecture given by Albert Einstein. He would go on receive honourary doctorates from Manitoba (D.Sc. hc 1982), Queen's University (D.Sc. hc 1984), the University of Regina (LL.D. hc 1986), Carleton University (D.Sc. hc 1988), Simon Fraser University (D.SC. hc 1995) and the University of British Columbia (D,Sc. hc, 1998). From 1956-65, Erich worked at the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratory as a theoretical physicist, publishing many papers in the field of nuclear reactions. He was heavily involved in the creation of the first Canadian CANDU reactors. In 1965 Erich became professor at the University of British Columbia, where he became one of the co-founders (with John Warren) and prime movers behind TRIUMF, Canada's national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics. Between September 1974 and April 1980, Erich was Chair of the TRIUMF Board of Management, and was Laboratory Director from 1981 until his retirement in March 1994.
Erich's service to the Canadian academic community reached far beyond TRIUMF. In 1970-71 he served as President of the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP). From 1975 until 1981, he was Vice President, Faculty and Student Affairs at the University of British Columbia. In 1978, he was the founding Chair of the Science Council of British Columbia, a position which he held until 1980. He was also a driving force behind the creation of the Science World science centre in Vancouver, and a lifelong benefactor. For all his service Erich was bestowed with many honours. He received the Centennial Medal of Canada in 1967, and was elected to fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada in 1970. In 1976, Erich was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada and in 1977 was awarded the Queen Elizabeth Silver Jubilee Medal, followed by the Queen Elizabeth Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002, and the Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. The CAP awarded him their Medal for Achievement in Physics in 1988, and in 2011 created in his honour the "CAP-TRIUMF Vogt Medal for Outstanding Experimental or Theoretical Contributions to Subatomic Physics". Tel Aviv University (Israel) unveiled the "Erich Vogt Laboratory for Data Analysis" in 1991. He was an executive member of the Vancouver Institute for 10 years and was elected an honourary lifetime member in 1992. In 1998, he received the Chairman's Award for Career Achievement from the BC Science Council. Erich was appointed to the Order of British Columbia in 2006 and in the same year he received the UBC Faculty of Science Achievement Award for Teaching. He continued to teach first year physics until his 80th birthday in 2009, where in 45 years he taught more than 5,000 students.
Internationally, Erich served on a plethora of scientific committees: as a member of the Physics Advisory Committee, Los Alamos National Meson Physics Facility in 1976-79; as a member of the U.S. Government's Nuclear Science Advisory Committee in 1982-85; as Chairman of the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee of the Stanford Linear Accelerator in 1984-87; as Chairman of the Advisory Committee for the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility in 1983-87; as Chairman of the Accelerator Science Advisory Committee for the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in 1984-87; as a member of the University of Chicago Review Committee for the Physics Division for Argonne National Laboratory in 1986-89; as Chairman of the Princeton University Physics Department Advisory Council in 1985-92; as Chairman of the Visiting Committee of the Laboratory for Nuclear Sciences of MIT in 1987-94; as a member of the Commission of Nuclear Physics for the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) in 1990-93, as well as its Vice Chairman in 1993-96 and Chairman in 1996-99; as Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the COSY accelerator at the Kernforschungsanlage, Juelich, Germany in 1989-95, including as a member of the Advisory Committee for Nuclear Physics; as a member of the Advisory Committee for the Department of Physics and the Department of Space Physics & Astronomy at Rice University; and as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Paul Scherrer Institute of the ETH in Zurich, Switzerland. For 1994-2012 he was a member of the Joint IUPAP and IUPAC Working Group for the evaluation of claims for the discovery of new elements. He was also co-editor (with John Negele of MIT) of the prestigious international series "Advances in Nuclear Physics" published by Plenum Publishing Co. in New York from the first volume in 1968 through the 27th volume in 2004.
Erich lived in Vancouver, BC. He had two daughters and three sons, all of them UBC graduates, and sixteen grandchildren. He was preceded in death by four brothers and his wife of 54 years, Barbara (in 2006). His eternal optimism in the face of daunting challenges uplifted all in his presence to the very end, and he will be sorely missed.