David Kornreich, Ph.D. ’01, who taught physics and astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), died Aug. 30 in a plane crash near Ithaca. He was 52.
An avid aviator and flight instructor, Kornreich was piloting the LA-4-200 Lake Buccaneer amphibious aircraft, which he owned; the plane appeared to experience a mechanical issue before crashing about an hour into its flight from the Tompkins County International Airport, according to the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Office. A passenger was also killed in the crash.
As a researcher and teacher at Cornell and at other institutions, Kornreich made a career out of watching the skies and helping others understand the mechanisms driving those observations.
Born Sept. 14, 1973, in Houston, Texas, Kornreich graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree, earning honors in astronomy. He earned his doctorate from Cornell in January 2001, writing his thesis, “Morphology and Dynamics in Spiral Galaxies,” under the mentorship of Cornell astronomy professors Martha Haynes and Richard Lovelace. His thesis included a first-of-its-kind study of a set of galaxies and resulted in five publications, four of which he first-authored.
Kornreich’s research combined his talent for computational physics with a strong interest in linking astronomical observations of galaxy structure and kinematics to their theoretical basis, said Haynes, Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Astronomy, Emerita (A&S).
“David was a clever and insightful researcher, curious about what underlying physics causes the complex and sometimes odd structures that can be seen in spiral galaxies,” Haynes said. “His favorite galaxies were weird-looking lopsided spirals, including ones in which the distributions of the stars and gas that we observe with telescopes appear to be offset from the distribution of the dark matter.”
Beyond scientific research, Kornreich had a deeper passion for science communication and education, according to Haynes.
“He always wanted to share his fascination both for the intricacy of nature and its connection to the fundamental laws of physics that govern the development of structure,” she said.
While a graduate student, Kornreich taught a freshman writing seminar that explored open questions in astronomy and cosmology. He was one of the founders of Cornell’s Ask an Astronomer blog. In 2000, he was awarded the Eleanor Norton York Prize in Astronomy for outstanding achievement and citizenship.
After completing his doctorate, Kornreich joined the physics faculty at Humboldt State University in California as an assistant professor, teaching courses in physics and astrophysics. He was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2006.
As a Humboldt State faculty member, he helped with the Undergraduate ALFALFA Team, a collaboration of several institutions fostering undergraduate research using the Cornell-operated Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico led by Haynes and the late Cornell astronomy professor Riccardo Giovanelli. Kornreich was a co-author of “The Arecibo Legacy Fast Alfa Survey: The Alfalfa Extragalactic Hi Source Catalog,” the results of this decadelong galaxy survey, published in 2018.
Kornreich conducted astronomical research at several facilities, including Arecibo; the Very Large Array in New Mexico; and the Palomar Observatory in California.
He returned to Ithaca in 2011, teaching physics and astronomy at Cornell, including courses through Cornell’s School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions. He also taught at Ithaca College and the State University of New York at Cortland.
Kornreich was a member of the Finger Lakes Curling Club during its first seasons in 2017-18 and remained enthusiastic about the sport even when his schedule didn’t allow regular participation, said Amy K. Wernimont, associate director of research at the Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science (A&S) and a board member of the club. He saw some of the same camaraderie and fun in curling, she said, that he found as a roller derby referee.
Haynes said Kornreich viewed the Aug. 12 solar eclipse from a prime location, a ship off the coast of Greenland, traveling with his wife.
“David described the eclipse experience as ‘spiritual’ and was particularly excited that he could see the planet Mercury not far from the sun during totality,” she said.
Kornreich is survived by his wife, Alexandra Clinton ‘96.
Read the story in the Cornell Chronicle.
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