A renowned St. Albert scientist who sought the secrets of the aurora borealis has died.
John Craig Samson, a retired professor of physics at the University of Alberta, died Feb. 7 due to complications from intestinal surgery. He was 66.
Samson was an active member of the Big Lake Environment Support Society (BLESS) and, along with his wife Liz, helped nominate the White Spruce Forest for provincial heritage tree status. He is renowned for his work on the aurora borealis — work that perhaps culminated with the launch of the THEMIS space probe in 2007.
Robert Rankin, a professor of space physics at the University of Alberta who worked with Samson for decades, called Samson "a brilliant man" who could bring complex space physics down to earth. "He really was a pioneer in different ways."
Absent-minded professor
Born Aug. 8, 1945, in New Westminster, B.C., Samson attended the University of British Columbia in the late 1960s.
Mike Apps, one of the many researchers who won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change, was his roommate.
"He was very conscious of being fit," Apps said from his home on Vancouver Island, and the two of them would jog to class every day.
Apps, who has been friends with Samson for about 44 years, described him as "very much the absent-minded professor" — his conversations tended to wander a bit.
Liz Samson and her sons, Jean-Paul and Michael, agreed with that assessment.
"He never seemed to quite successfully set a table completely," said Jean-Paul, with a smile, as he'd always wander off to do something else.
And he was always misplacing stuff, Liz added — they still can't find his hiking pole. "His mind was always busy thinking."
Liz said she lived across the hall from Samson during university, and spent a lot of time with him while there.
"He had a little red sports car, an MG Midget," she recalled, and their first date was to go to the ballet. They married in 1969.
Samson was a fairly solitary man who loved quiet and nature, Liz said. He would often go on long walks in the forest with his dog, Topsy, during which he would solve physics problems in his head.
Samson was a board member with BLESS for two years, said long-time member Stuart Loomis, and came up with the idea for the Big Lake webcam.
Environmentalist Elke Blodgett says she would often meet Samson on his walks, having first encountered him when his car was stuck in the snow by the old canoe club.
"He loved the fern forest on the south shore."
It was neat to see how someone so interested in space could also care deeply about what's down here, she said.
Space man
Samson has been a major force in space science since the 1970s, said Rankin, who recalled the swarms of researchers who would come to Samson for advice at international conferences. He was the first to identify Alfvén waves — the mysterious tendency for space plasmas to vibrate at specific frequencies while in a magnetic field. Researchers believe these waves are linked to the northern lights.
Samson's research in this area made him a key part of THEMIS — a $500 million fleet of five satellites designed to study the aurora borealis. By placing these satellites in Earth's orbit and combining them with ground-based sensors (Samson's specialty), the researchers hoped to study the cause of the magnetic storms that fry satellites and produce the northern lights.
Samson witnessed the satellites' launch in February 2007. That December, the project confirmed that the northern lights were caused, broadly speaking, by huge electromagnetic space tentacles from the sun. Three of the project's satellites are still studying the phenomenon, Rankin said, while two have been diverted to study the moon.
Jean-Paul said his fondest memory of Samson was the sight of him in his little red car with his dog.
"I can sort of imagine him motoring around the vineyard in the Okanagan in his red car with his small blond dog, the warm air blowing through his hair."
Liz said she planned to dedicate a bench in St. Albert to Samson later this year.
"John is out there in the cosmos and is looking at those northern lights much more closely."
Samson is survived by his wife, two sons and two brothers, George and Paul. Condolences can be sent to [email protected].
