Reuven Ramaty (1937–2001) was a Hungarian-born Israeli-American astrophysicist who worked for 30 years at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. He was a leader in the fields of solar physics, gamma-ray line spectrometry, nuclear astrophysics, and low-energy cosmic rays. Ramaty was a founding member of NASA's High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager which later was renamed in his honor to Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager. This was the first space mission to be named after a NASA scientist and was operational from 2002 until 2018. Ramaty made many contributions in the field of astrophysics and solar physics. He was given the Goddard Lindsay Award in 1980.
Early life
Ramaty was born on February 25, 1937, to two Hungarian parents Michael Miki Reiter and Eliz Ramaty, living in Timișoara, Romania. In 1948, when he was 11 years old, he moved with his family to Israel to escape growing cultural tensions and economic difficulties following the Second World War. He became the stepson of Gizi Reiter after her marriage to his father. Ramaty remained in Israel for 16 years, where he finished his secondary education and graduated from Tel Aviv University in 1961 with a Bachelor of Science in physics. Ramaty taught physics at a secondary level in Israel before his move to Los Angeles. During his life, Ramaty learnt a total of 8 languages (Hebrew, English, French, Romanian, Hungarian, German, Japanese and Italian).
Education
In 1964 Ramaty enrolled into the University of California, Los Angeles where he pursued his PhD on planetary and space physics. Ramaty completed his PhD from UCLA in the record time of two years in 1966. Ramaty then joined the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in 1967 as a post-doctoral research associate. During his career, Ramaty remained active in tertiary education institutions as he was an adjunct professor of physics at the University of Maryland, College Park from 1983, where he served as a PhD advisor for six students. Ramaty was also a visiting professor at Nagoya University (1993) and a visiting scientist at California Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, San Diego, University of Pennsylvania and Washington University in St. Louis.
Notable work
Ramaty was a postdoctoral research associate (Laboratory for High-Energy Astrophysics), Astrophysicist (Laboratory for High-Energy Astrophysics), Head of Theory Office (Laboratory for High-Energy Astrophysics), Associate Editor for Physical Review Letters, chairman of the American Physical Society (Astrophysics division), Chairman of the American Physical Society (High-Energy Astronomy Division) and Divisional counselor for astrophysics for the American Physical Society (APS). In addition to this, his work on flare-accelerated particles from energetic solar particle events built the foundation for the magnetohydrodynamic simulations which are used to resolve new paradoxes regarding these particles. Having used these simulations. Ramaty's findings have been successfully compared with today's observations. Recent observations within the NASA RHESSI project show his early calculations on low-energy cosmic ray lines and theories on solar flare emissions to be accurate and consistent.
Following the initial discoveries of these observations, Ramaty spent 30 years refining his findings with the Solar Maximum Mission along with the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. This effort was carried out mainly with the help of Benz Kozlovsky of Tel Aviv University, Ramaty's alma mater. Their discoveries would then lead to Ramaty's theory on the origin of low-energy cosmic rays, now generally accepted within the physics community. Ramaty's work has been recognized by NASA through his continual efforts and dedication to the field and has honored him with the renaming of the HESSI mission to RHESSI, making it the first NASA mission to be named after a researcher.
Achievements
During his life, Ramaty received a number of significant awards for his work in physics. In 1975 he was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation the Senior U.S. Scientist Award, the Exceptional Scientific Achievement Award in 1980 from NASA, Lindsay Award from Goddard Space Flight Centre in 1981 and the 2001 Yodh lifetime Prize just a week before his death. These awards were given mainly for his work with Cosmic Rays and the efforts he put into the literature itself as well as the expansion of knowledge in the field. On December 11, 2000, the University of Maryland hosted "A tribute to Reuven Ramaty's Contributions to High- Energy Solar Physics and Astronomy" which celebrated his works in the field of solar physics as well as acknowledging contributions to his work with solar flare emissions throughout his time at the university.
Notable academic papers and reception
The Online Archive of California holds a collection of Ramaty's papers. These works include scientific writings, articles, books, research proposals. Beyond his scientific work at Goddard Space Flight Center, the archive also documents conferences organised by Ramaty. Using this work, Ramaty continued to pursue his studies in low energy cosmic rays and has published multiple papers on the subject, five of which are available on The Online Archive of California.
Death
Ramaty died on April 8, 2001 (age 64) in his home in Silver Spring, Maryland, due to complications with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.