About Eugene Parker
Eugene Newman Parker was an American solar and plasma physicist, often called the "father" and "founder" of heliophysics. In 1958, he proposed the existence of the solar wind and predicted that the magnetic field in the outer Solar System would be in the shape of a Parker spiral—predictions initially rejected by reviewers and scientific community, but quickly confirmed by the Mariner 2 spacecraft in 1962. Multiple phenomena in solar and plasma physics bear his name, including the Parker instability, Parker equation, Sweet–Parker model of magnetic reconnection, Parker limit on magnetic monopoles, and Parker theorem. In 1988, he proposed that nanoflares could explain the coronal heating problem, a theory that remains a leading candidate. In 2017, NASA renamed its Solar Probe Plus mission to Parker Solar Probe in his honor, the first NASA spacecraft named after a living person. Parker became interested in science and engineering from childhood: he was interested in steam trains, and found the mechanical principles of it to be "fascinating". Parker later wrote that William Smythe's year-long course in electricity and magnetism was the most demanding course in his first year at Caltech, but noted that after several weeks the problems became easier and he "aced" the exam.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.