John N. Bahcall was Richard Black Professor of Natural Science, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ.

John Bahcall received his BA in physics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1956 and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1961. He was on the faculty of California Institute of Technology and was a Professor of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.

Dr. Bahcall's areas of expertise included models of the Galaxy, dark matter, atomic and nuclear physics applied to astronomical systems, stellar evolution, and quasar emission and absorption lines. In collaboration with Raymond Davis Jr., he proposed in 1964 that neutrinos from the sun could be detected via a practical chlorine detector. In the subsequent three decades, he has refined theoretical predictions and interpretations of solar neutrino detectors.

In 1999, Prof. Bahcall was awarded the lifetime achievement award of the American Astronomical Society, the Russell Prize, for his work on Galaxy models, quasar absorption spectra, and solar neutrinos. He was awarded the U.S. National Medal of Science and the American Physical Society's Hans Bethe Prize in 1998; the 1994 Heineman Prize by the American Astronomical Society and the American Institute of Physics for his work on solar neutrinos; the 1992 NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal for his observations with the Hubble Space Telescope; and the 1970 Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society for his research on quasars and on solar neutrinos.

Prof. Bahcall was president of the American Astronomical Society from 1990-1992 and chair of the National Academy Decade Survey Committee for Astronomy and Astrophysics in the 1990s which successfully set priorities for research projects.