October 2, 2024 - Victoria, British Columbia
We are deeply saddened as we remember a friend, an inspiring colleague and a key figure in Canadian astronomy whose impact and influence have resonated nationally and internationally.
Dr. John Hutchings, Principal Research Officer Emeritus with the Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre, passed away suddenly on September 18, 2024.
Throughout his career of over 55 years at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, Dr. Hutchings wrote over 450 papers, and his input on several transformational projects is still used and praised by astronomers all around the globe. He will be remembered for his exceptional contributions to Canadian astronomy on the ground and in space, such as discovering the first black hole outside the Milky Way, proving that quasars are at the centre of active galaxies and co-discovering that OB stars (hot and massive stars) generate hot stellar winds created by an outflow of gas from the star.
Dr. Hutchings was instrumental in several key projects. He served as a member of the Hubble Space Telescope's Goddard High-Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) team from 1976 to 1997, and the Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) team from 1982 onwards. Since 2000, he had been the Canadian principal investigator of the Indian Space Research Organization's AstroSat mission, in particular its Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT). He also worked on NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) mission.
Furthermore, Dr. Hutchings was one of the NRC faces behind the James Webb Space Telescope, working to have Canada included in the project when it was first conceived in the 1990s. He later served as the Canadian project scientist for Webb from 2002 to 2012 and was the lead scientist of Webb's Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) and the Near-Infrared Imaging and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS).
His outstanding career and scientific contributions were recognized through numerous awards. Here are just some of them:
- NRC's Outstanding Achievement Award (2023), for his work on the James Webb Space Telescope alongside the Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics team
- CASCA Executive Award for Outstanding Service (2013) for his outstanding contributions to the astronomy community
- Royal Jubilee Medal (2002)
- Royal Society of Canada Fellow (1987)
- Science Council of British Columbia's Gold Medal (1983)
- Canadian Astronomical Society's Carlyle S. Beals Award (1982)
Dr. Hutchings will be greatly missed by his NRC colleagues. We share our grief with his loved ones and with the larger astronomy community. He will certainly be remembered for his love of astronomy but mostly for his heart of gold.
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