[ASA] Vale David Carter

[Sarah Brough]

Dear ASA Members,

  It is with sadness that I announce the passing of Professor David 
Carter (Liverpool John Moores University). Dave made a substantial 
contribution to Australian astronomy through initiating work on 
multi-object fibre optic spectroscopy in Australia with a 1981 AAO 
internal memo simply entitled ‘Fibre Optics’.  Together with David 
Malin, he also discovered “Shell Galaxies”, or “Malin-Carter 
Ellipticals” at the Anglo-Australian Telescope.

Roger Wood (RGO, Edinburgh) and Professor Mike Bode (Liverpool John 
Moores University), in collaboration with David’s family have shared the 
following appreciation of his life:

“It is with great sadness that we report the death of David Carter at 
the age of 67 at his home in Parkgate, the Wirral, after a brave and 
uncomplaining fight against a rare form of blood cancer. David will be 
interred at Blacon cemetery, Chester, on the 10^th  of June. 
Unfortunately, restrictions due to COVID mean attendance has to be by 
invitation only. David asked for any contributions in lieu of flowers to 
be donated to Chester Zoo in his memory.

“Universally known as Dave, he was born and grew up in Hertfordshire. He 
went to Hatfield School, an establishment that later formed part of the 
campus of what is now the University of Hertfordshire. Dave excelled in 
science at school and gained a place to study physics at Hertford 
College, Oxford, at the age of 17, graduating from there in 1973. He 
then moved to Cambridge to undertake a PhD under the supervision 
of Craig Mackay, and was awarded his PhD in 1977 for a thesis entitled 
“The Structure of Elliptical Galaxies”.

“Observational studies of galaxies remained the main focus of his 
research for the rest of his career. After a stint as a Departmental 
Demonstrator at Oxford, he moved to the (then) Anglo-Australian 
Observatory in Sydney (1979-1982). Here he met his future wife, Trish, 
before moving to the Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories, ANU 
in Canberra (1982-1987) where two of his three sons, Steve and then 
Nick, were born. It was while he was in Australia that, together with 
David Malin, he discovered “Shell Galaxies”, or “Malin-Carter 
Ellipticals”, spending many hours in the Prime Focus cage of the Anglo 
Australian Telescope in so-doing. In the rest of his research career, he 
made major contributions to a diverse range of topics on galactic 
structure and content, with his last major programme being to lead an 
international consortium using the HST to survey galaxies in the Coma 
Cluster.

“From Australia, he moved to the Isaac Newton Group of telescopes on La 
Palma where he continued both his research and his instrument 
development and observer support roles. It seems that much of the 
documentation in the control rooms of the INT and WHT still has Dave 
Carter’s name on it. It was also on La Palma that Dave and Trish’s 
youngest son, Pete, was born. In 1991, he moved back to the RGO in the 
UK, ultimately becoming Head of La Palma Support.

“Dave’s expertise and experience made him an ideal candidate for the 
post of Project Scientist of the pioneering, fully robotic, Liverpool 
Telescope and he moved with his family to take up the position at 
Liverpool John Moores University in 1996. Dave rapidly became an 
indispensable member of the LT team and indeed was a driving force 
behind several aspects of the development of what ultimately became the 
Astrophysics Research Institute at LJMU. He became ARI’s Head of 
Research and then Professor of Observational Astronomy at the University 
in 2008. He took early retirement in 2012 to concentrate on his 
research, his family and his wide range of outside interests.

“Dave was a passionate cricketer, both as a player and someone with an 
encyclopaedic knowledge of the game. A love he passed on to his sons. He 
was a great servant of his local community, using his talents and 
energies as a dedicated local councillor and, together with Trish, the 
driving force behind a church-led drop-in centre in his local town. He 
also loved cooking and was notably adventurous in this and his choice of 
meals, particularly when travelling abroad.

“In summary, Dave was a cheerful, enthusiastic and very gifted man who 
went out of his way to help others. He was also extremely loyal to the 
institutions in which he worked, to the friends he made and the 
colleagues he met along the way. He will be sorely missed by all of 
those who had the privilege to know him.”

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.sydney.edu.au/pipermail/asa/attachments/20210608/43bd7a4d/attachment.html>