Yervant Terzian

1939 - 2019

Yervant Terzian

Ithaca - Yervant Terzian, the Tish Distinguished University Professor Emeritus in the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University, died on November 25, 2019, after a long illness. Yervant made major contributions to the field of astronomy as a researcher, an inspired teacher and a gifted administrator. He had a tremendous capability to infect both students and everyone he knew or met with the excitement for astronomy that he personally felt.

Yervant Terzian was born on Thursday, February 9, 1939 in Alexandria, Egypt. It was a cool early spring day, with rain transitioning from rain to drizzle and cumulus clouds against the Mediterranean sky. He was the son of a small merchant, Bedros Terzian, who as a child had fled the Armenian genocide, and his wife, Maria (Kyriakaki) Terzian, the daughter of a fisherman from one of the smallest and most remote Greek islands. By dint of his intelligence, determination, skillfulness and a formidable sense of duty and purpose, he lived an improbable life. Born into a family of modest means, an ethnic minority in an occupied former colony of a declining empire, he channeled his intense passion for knowledge and education to become a leader in the field of radio astronomy and the broader field of astrophysics, and to build up Cornell University's strong but small Astronomy Department into one of the most highly regarded in the world.

Yervant spent his youth in Alexandria and Cairo. At a young age, he determined to become an astronomer and walked from his home on Ibrahim Pasha Road to the Cairo Observatory to seek the director's advice. A few years later, he learned English (his fifth language) to read the astronomy books in the American Library of Cairo; the librarian, impressed by his enthusiasm, bought new books for him to read when he exhausted what their initial holdings. At 17 he was admitted to the American University in Cairo, where he earned an undergraduate degree in physics in 1960. Overcoming the bureaucratic obstacles that were placed on ethnic minorities following the fall of the King Farouk and the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, he entered the PhD program in astrophysics at Indiana University in Bloomington, which he completed in 1965. His doctoral research, conducted at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in West Virginia, led to a lifetime of contributions to our understanding of the interstellar medium, the gas and dust between the stars. In early 1965 he joined the scientific staff of the recently built, and Cornell University managed, Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, the beginning of a lifelong association with Cornell.

In 1967 Yervant moved to Cornell's Ithaca, New York, campus as an assistant professor of astronomy, the start of a distinguished teaching career for which in 1984 he received the Clark Distinguished Award for Excellence in Teaching. Over the years he supervised many PhD students and authored, or co-authored, over 235 scientific publications and edited seven books including Carl Sagan's Universe. In 1979 he was appointed Chair of the Astronomy Department, a position he held for twenty years, a testament to his vision, his diplomatic skills and his strong sense of duty towards the University, his colleagues and his students. A tireless champion for scientific literacy, he engaged regularly with public audiences regarding important discoveries about planets, stars, black holes, and galaxies. While Chair, he founded the Friends of Astronomy (FoA), a group of Cornell related alumni who shared Yervant's enthusiasm for astronomy and who have been, and continue to be, very supportive of Cornell's Astronomy Department. However, it was in the broader area of astronomy that he made his major contributions. He was a scientific editor of the Astrophysical Journal for ten years from 1989. In 1996 he was appointed director of the NASA-funded New York Space Grant Consortium for Science Education and, later, director of the National Space Grant Consortium. In 2002 he was elected chair of the US Consortium of Universities and Institutes involved with the international project to build the next generation of large radio telescopes, the Square Kilometer Array, and chaired the site selection committee for the telescope.

Profoundly proud and thankful for all the opportunities that were attendant to becoming an American citizen, he served his country as a scientist whenever the occasion arose. Also proud and loyal to his Armenian and Greek heritage, he sought out or created opportunities to assist and collaborate with scientists from both nations. In the wake of the breakup of the Soviet Union and the loss of much of the funding for scientists in Armenia, Yervant and colleagues created the very successful Armenian National Science and Education Fund, which Yervant chaired, to raise money to support Armenian scientists based on peer-reviewed proposals. He was a founding member of the Hellenic Astronomical Society and the Armenian Astronomical Society (1993 and 2001, respectively).

Yervant's contributions were widely recognized. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science degrees from the University of Indiana (1989), the Yerevan State University in Armenia (1994), the University of Thessaloniki in Greece (1997), and from Union College in New York (1999). In 1990, he was elected a Foreign Member of the Armenian Academy of Sciences. In 1999 the Friends of Astronomy established an endowment for The Yervant Terzian Undergraduate Scholarships; in 2009 FoA Chuck Mund, Jr. established the Yervant Terzian Lectures. In 2001 he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2004 he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the American University in Cairo. In 2008 he received the Gold Medal, the highest honor for scientific achievement, from the Government of the Republic of Armenia. In 2018 NASA awarded him its highest honor for non-government individuals, the Public Service Medal. Appointments by Cornell, as Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow and Tisch Distinguished University Professor honored his contributions as a teacher and a scientist.

Competitive by nature and a former champion athlete in track and field, Yervant had a love for sports throughout his life. He also greatly enjoyed traveling throughout the world and listening to classical, Greek, and Armenian music, cooking Greek food and tending to his fruit trees and flower gardens. He was especially fond of Ithaca, which he made his home for most of his life.

Yervant was preceded in death by his sister, Vaya Stamatopoulos of Athens, Greece, and by his first wife and mother of his children, Araxy (Hovsepian) Bablanian of Gainsville, FL. He is survived by his wife, Patricia Fernández de Castro, daughter Tamar (Joseph) Terzian, of Alexandria, VA; son, Sevan (Lee-Ann) Terzian of Gainesville, FL; grandsons Zaven Masih and Christopher Terzian; granddaughters Nairi Masih and Talar Terzian; nieces, Mary Stamatopoulos, Maral Tchelikdjian, and Talar Kizirian; nephew, Pericles Stamatopoulos and three grand-nephews.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Armenian National Science & Education Fund (ANSEF). Please make checks to FAR/ANSEF and mail them to: Fund for Armenian Relief (FAR), c/o Mr. Garnik Nanagoulian, 630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016

A memorial gathering will be held at 404 Highland Road, Ithaca, NY, from 12:00 pm-2:30 pm on Friday, December 6. The funeral will follow at the Pleasant Grove Cemetery at 3:00 pm.