Eugene Newman Parker

Eugene Newman Parker was born in Houghton, Michigan. He earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Michigan State University and completed his PhD at Caltech in 1951. In 1955, he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago and the Enrico Fermi Institute, where he conducted foundational plasma astrophysics research for five decades.

In 1958, using fluid dynamics, Parker formulated the radical theoretical prediction that the solar corona is not in hydrostatic equilibrium, but continuously expands outward at supersonic speeds, carrying magnetized plasma across the solar system—a phenomenon he named the "solar wind." Though initially ridiculed by peer reviewers, his prediction was confirmed in 1962 by NASA's Mariner 2 spacecraft. Parker also formulated the Parker spiral of interplanetary magnetic fields and the magnetic reconnection theory. In 2018, NASA broke precedent by naming a mission after a living scientist for the first time: the Parker Solar Probe, which flew directly into the Sun's corona in 2021. He received the Kyoto Prize and the Crafoord Prize in Astronomy.