Comments on: Goodbye Andrew Chamblin

By: Cosmic Variance

Cosmic Variance — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 05:54:07 +0000

First Andrew Chamblin Memorial Lecture

Just over a year ago, Clifford reported the shocking news that Andrew Chamblin, a wonderful young physicist, great guy, and a friend of a number of us at Cosmic Variance, had died. Many people used the comments section of that post to recount fond mem…

By: Memories, Physics, and Celebration - Asymptotia

Memories, Physics, and Celebration - Asymptotia — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 03:57:46 +0000

[...] That Saturday of celebration of Andrew’s work (The Andrew Chamblin Memorial Conference) at Cambridge was a remarkable experience. (See here for my first post on Andrew, with tributes.) I was exhausted through a good deal of it, since I had eight hour jetlag, but I’m so glad I went, and that I could contribute a talk. I met many old friends and colleagues, drawn mostly from the UK and European side of Andrew’s collection of friends, collaborators, and admirers in the field. [...]

By: Andrew Chamblin Memorial Conference | Cosmic Variance

Andrew Chamblin Memorial Conference | Cosmic Variance — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 22:04:35 +0000

[...] There will be a conference in memory of Andrew Chamblin at Trinity College, Cambridge, on October 14. The registration deadline is September 1. Anyone who knew or worked with Andrew is encouraged to attend. Andrew, a theoretical physicist who several of us here at CV knew very well, passed away in February, and there was previously a conference in his honor in Louisville in March. [...]

By: Angela Smith

Angela Smith — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 22:41:35 +0000

I am very grateful for this site and all the posts. I just learned of Andrew’s death today, in the Rice Classnotes, and came right online to see what else I could learn.

My one Andrew story fit for consumption is from the summer after his graduation from Rice. He was staying with his parents in Hinsdale, Illinois, and invited me to a theater in Chicago to see “A Brief History of Time”. I haven’t a single scientific bone in my body, but it was the best movie I’ve ever seen, thanks to Andrew sinking intp the back row with me and explaining every bit of it. (He also shared a great story about his encounter with Kurt Vonnegut.)

Andrew was always ‘My friend who studied with Hawking’ (as other non-scientists rarely know of Roger Penrose), which I was reminded of when I told the news to my mother and her first reply was ‘Oh, no, the one who studied with Hawking?’

It never failed to amaze me how Andrew could be so clearly brilliant yet unaffected, and rather than feeling an utter idiot, actually manage to make me feel more intelligent for finally understanding some tidbit of information he wished to impart. I cannot imagine the pain of those losing a close colleague; my heart and prayers go out to all of you.

By: Random grad student

Random grad student — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 15:45:09 +0000

I saw Andrew give a couple of seminars at Notre Dame where he was applying for a job. My impression was ‘Damn, this is a real physicist and cool person in one!’. I was seriously hoping he would move, but it was not to be. That a stranger can make such an impression so quickly says a lot.

By: Andreas Ritter

Andreas Ritter — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 17:35:59 +0000

When asked what I liked most about my time at University of Oxford I always said the international bunch of fellow students at Christ Church. And then I told the story about this very bright, extremly polite Texan physicist with whom you could discuss philosophy, time machines and the rest of the world but also play Bach sonatas.

By: Brett Sovereign

Brett Sovereign — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 14:45:33 +0000

I just learned of Andrew’s death through the Rice alumni site. I knew Andrew well through his undergraduate years at Rice, and kept in touch for most of our graduate time. It’s been almost 10 years since I spoke with him, and it’s a punch in the stomach realizing he’s gone. He was one-of-a-kind, and my life was enriched for knowing him. Your post and all the other comments on it show that I wasn’t alone in this feeling.

Brett Sovereign
brett.sovereign ‘at’ gmail.com

By: In Memory of Andrew Chamblin | Cosmic Variance

In Memory of Andrew Chamblin | Cosmic Variance — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 04:59:28 +0000

[...] You will recall that last month I went to a memorial service and all-day symposium for Andrew Chamblin, who died in February. (You can read much more in this link, particularly in the comment thread.) The memorial was in Louisville, Kentucky, where Andrew was on the Physics Faculty. Several of Andrews friends, colleagues and collaborators came to the event. The dominant component of the attendance was from people who were in either of the physics departments at Louisville, Lexington and Cincinatti, the three closest cities, which have physics links with each other (some of those links involved collaborations with Andrew). Andrew’s family and several close friends were there, and some physicists from further away, such as myself. There were also readings of the numerous letters that were sent and from other communications (e.g. from the thread of the post I did on this blog). These were from friends and colleagues from much further afield who were unable to make it to the memorial symposium and service. [...]

By: Tony Simpao

Tony Simpao — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 21:43:41 +0000

[Remarks removed by request. -cvj]

By: Dom

Dom — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 05:26:36 +0000

I hadn’t seen Andrew for some time and, having now left physics, it might have been some time until I saw him again. I have some fond memories, however, and was so very sorry to hear the news of Andrew’s untimely death. As I said to Jo in an email, I think the world will be a lesser place without him.

My overiding memories of Andrew were from the time he put me up in his place outside Los Alamos. I was sleeping on his floor when 9/11 happened, and awoke to him kicking me saying that the Pentagon had been attacked. We spent the rest of the day bar and restaurant hopping since he didn’t have a TV, and in the end we just went out and bought one. It was a surreal few days as you can imagine.

The following weekend, Andrew took me up to what I think were the Crestones in Colorado, which I think his brother Jonathan mentioned. I can’t be sure that was the place, but we certainly spent a couple of days hiking up a big mountain – at over 14,000 ft still the highest I’ve scaled. I remember getting the fear during a hairy bit at the top and having to sit and have a cigarette to calm the nerves. It was truly a beautiful place and, although some of his colleagues couldn’t understand why he was going out to the wilds straight after 9/11, it somehow seemed fitting.

-Dom