Syd Meshkov, 1927-2020

Syd Meshkov, celebrating LIGO's first detection of Gravitational Waves

LIGO is saddened to report that Syd Meshkov passed away on 31 August 2020 at the age of 93. Many of us knew Syd as colleague and great friend. The arc of Syd’s professional career began in high energy theoretical physics and continued as a long-time affiliate of ours in LIGO. From the beginning of LIGO Lab in the mid–1990s Syd dedicated his efforts to LIGO science and to organizing workshops and seminars to educate scientists about gravitational waves and LIGO; these early meetings defined the gravitational-wave instrumental community. Most recently, he organized the international Gravitational Wave Advanced Detector Workshops, the Miami conferences, and the LIGO Caltech Tuesday seminar series. Before LIGO, Syd was a long-time member of the Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy (PMA) family at Caltech.

Syd was by all accounts a talented physicist as well as a passionate advocate for LIGO. Those who knew him well knew him to be a genuinely warm person with a great sense of humor and a pleasure to talk with about physics or life in general. Syd had great stories, and told them in a way that made everyone laugh. He was also someone who never let obstacles get in his way. We will miss our dear friend very much.