Address of the President Sir Andrew Huxley, O.M. at the Anniversary Meeting, 30 November 1984
The Copley Medal is awarded to Professor Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, F. R. S., in recognition of his distinguished work in theoretical physics, including stellar structure, theory of radiation, hydrodynamic stability and relativity. Professor Chandrasekhar has been a major figure in astrophysical sciences since the 1930s. His earliest work, on dwarf stars, led to the concept of the Chandrasekhar limit of stability, which later proved to be a central concept in the origin of the natural elements. He subsequently worked on stellar dynamics and the processes of energy transfer through gaseous bodies. The latter work was followed by a detailed and intensive study of convection in buoyant, rotating and conducting systems which has been fundamental to subsequent work in the field. He also studied the stability of rotating fluid masses. His latest work concerns general relativity theory and solutions of the Einstein field equations, in particular singularities and black holes, where he has shown the importance of these solutions and elucidated their mathematical properties.