We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of our former colleague, Bernard (Bernie) Gottschalk, PhD.
Bernie was born in 1935 in Germany, his mother a fashion designer, his father a lawyer. At age three his family escaped Nazi Germany to settle in New York City. Bernie's talents led him to study physics at Harvard, finishing his PhD in 1960 at the Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory. He was credited with being the first to observe proton-proton Bremsstrahlung. As a postdoc in nuclear physics, he traveled the globe to join groups at Fermilab and Cern. Finding a permanent home in Cambridge, MA, Bernie assumed a professorship at Northeastern University from 1965 until 1981 - when he decided to join the proton therapy group at the Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory under Andy Koehler. It was at HCL where he found his scientific home and colleagues who became friends for life. Even after the HCL was retired in 2002 Bernie remained an active collaborator to many of us here at the MGH proton center for 2 decades. His work is well known - and used - internationally.
His biggest impact on the field: researching the basic physics of protons traversing media at therapy energies. His software to compute energy loss and scattering was used to model beamline transport and design double scattering systems, at HCL and in commercial treatment units. His second passion was electronics and detectors - the Multilayer Faraday Cup, and the Multilayer Ion Chamber are amongst his inventions. Bernie's proton therapy course summarizes much of the knowledge he gained over the course of his incredible career.
As a scientist, Bernie was an inspiring mentor and teacher of many of us. As a person, he was a wonderful human being and friend. He will be sorely missed.
