Editing Thomas Gold (section)

==Academic legacy==
[[File:Carl Sagan Planetary Society.JPG|thumb|right|[[Carl Sagan]], hired by Gold after Sagan was denied tenure at Harvard University in 1968]]
Throughout his academic career, Gold received a number of honors and distinctions. He was a Fellow of the [[Royal Astronomical Society]] (1948), the [[Royal Society]] (1964),<ref name="frs"/> the [[American Geophysical Union]] (1962), the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] (1974), and the [[American Astronautical Society]], a member of the [[American Philosophical Society]] (1972), the [[United States National Academy of Sciences]] (1974) and the [[International Academy of Astronautics]], and an Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge (1986).<ref name="AIM25"/> In addition, he served as President of the New York Astronomical Society from 1981 to 1986.<ref name="Pearce"/> Gold won the [[John Frederick Lewis Award]] from the American Philosophical Society in 1972 for his paper "The Nature of the Lunar Surface: Recent Evidence"<ref>{{citation|title=Recipients of the John Frederick Lewis Award |url=http://www.amphilsoc.org/prizes/lewis.htm |publisher=[[American Philosophical Society]] |date=January 7, 2009 |access-date=June 21, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081229063443/http://www.amphilsoc.org/prizes/lewis.htm |archive-date=December 29, 2008 }}.</ref> and the [[Humboldt Prize]] from the [[Alexander von Humboldt Foundation]] in 1979.<ref name="AIM25">{{citation|last=Todd|first=Louise|title=Royal Society: Gold, Thomas (1920–2004)|url=http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=10276&inst_id=18&nv1=search&nv2=|publisher=[[AIM25]]|date=May 2006|access-date=June 21, 2009}}.</ref> In 1985, Gold won the prestigious [[Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society]], an award whose recipients include Fred Hoyle, Hermann Bondi, Martin Ryle, Edwin Hubble, [[James Van Allen]], [[Fritz Zwicky]], [[Hannes Alfvén]] and [[Albert Einstein]].<ref>{{citation|title=Winners of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society|date=February 15, 2005|publisher=[[Royal Astronomical Society]]|access-date=June 21, 2009|url=http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=268 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20051122130144/http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=268 |archive-date = November 22, 2005}}.</ref> Gold did not earn a [[doctorate]], but received an honorary [[Doctor of Science]] degree from Cambridge University in 1969.<ref>{{Harvnb|Dermott|2004|p=1675}}.</ref>

Following his death in 2004, obituaries laying out the breadth of his scientific inquiries appeared in a number of scientific journals. In the journal ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'', [[Hermann Bondi]] wrote "Tommy Gold will long be remembered as a singular scientist who stepped into any field where he thought an option was being overlooked. He was also unusual in working mainly theoretically, but using little mathematics, relying instead on his profound intuitive understanding of physics."<ref name="obit-Bondi-Nature">{{cite journal |last1=Bondi |first1=Hermann |title=Obituary: Thomas Gold, 1920–2004 |journal=Nature |date=22 July 2004 |volume=430 |issue=6998 |page=415 |doi=10.1038/430415a |pmid=15269755 |bibcode=2004Natur.430..415B |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/430415a.pdf}}</ref> The obituary in ''[[Physics Today]]'' included a listing of topics he delved into: "the alignment of galactic dust, the instability of Earth’s axis of rotation, the dusty lunar surface, the Sun's cosmic rays, and plasmas and magnetic fields in the solar system ... the origin of solar flares, the nature of time, molecules and masers in the interstellar medium, rotating neutron stars and the nature of pulsars, terrestrial sources of hydrocarbons, and the deep Earth biosphere."<ref name="2005-physics-today">{{cite journal |last1=Terzian |first1=Yervant |last2=Salpeter |first2=Edwin E |title=Obituary: Thomas Gold |journal=Physics Today |date=February 2005 |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=82–84 |doi=10.1063/1.1897530 |bibcode=2005PhT....58b..82T |url=https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article/58/2/82/904440}}</ref>

Gold's boldness in his approach is another aspect of his legacy. The obituary in the ''[[Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society]]'' called attention to his being "regarded by some as a scientific maverick who delighted in controversy. In reality, he was an iconoclast whose strength was in penetrating analysis of the assumptions on which some of our most important theories are based.... Tommy's paradigm-changing ideas in astronomy and planetary science, while original and bold, were also highly controversial. With his radical work on the origin of natural gas and petroleum, the controversy is likely to continue.... He will be remembered as one of the most interesting, dynamic and influential scientists of his generation."{{sfn|Dermott|2004}} The obituary in ''[[The Guardian]]'' stated that Gold would "dive into new territory to open up problems unseen by others — in biophysics, astrophysics, space engineering, or geophysics. Controversy followed him everywhere. Possessing profound scientific intuition and open-minded rigour, he usually ended up challenging the cherished assumptions of others and, to the discomfiture of the scientific establishment, often found them wanting. His stature and influence were international."{{sfn|Tucker|2004}}