Harold K. Ticho

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of former Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Professor Emeritus of Physics Harold K. Ticho, who died November 3, 2020. He was 98 years old.

Ticho was a prolific researcher in physics and deeply committed to education at all levels, as a mentor to many students and junior researchers. He was also an accomplished administrator who helped expand UC San Diego's educational and research programs. His legacy will endure, and he will be deeply missed by the Department of Physics, the Division of Physical Sciences, and the university.

Born Harold Klein Ticho, December 21, 1921, in Brno, Czechoslovakia, the physicist spent his entire faculty career in the University of California system. First, he received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in physics from the University of Chicago. In 1948, while a graduate student there, he established the lifetime of stopped laboratory muons, which contributed to the understanding and verification of the famous phenomenon of time-dilation in Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity. In 1949, he received his Ph.D. from Chicago, but he had begun working at UCLA as a lecturer in 1948-49 before graduation. At UCLA, he was named professor of physics and served as chairman of the Department of Physics, from 1967 to 1971. Ticho served as dean of the Division of Physical Sciences in the College of Letters and Sciences at UCLA from 1974 to 1983. After serving 35 years as a professor of physics at UCLA, Ticho joined UC San Diego where he held the same position from 1983 until he retired in 1991.

As a physicist, Ticho's leadership and groundbreaking work in experimental elementary particle physics shaped our fundamental understanding of the basic building blocks of matter that led to the quark model of the nucleon. He was part of the team, working with Nobel Laureate Luis Alvarez, to establish and operate the Bevatron particle accelerator at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. It was during this period when dozens of new particles and excited states were discovered, marking the beginning of a new era in elementary particle physics.

Among the multiple awards recognizing his research and scholarship are two Guggenheim Fellowships in 1966-67 and 1973-74.

In addition to his research and educational contributions, Ticho provided crucial academic leadership for the university through his service in high-level administrative positions. In 1983, he was appointed as Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for the UC San Diego campus. He was responsible for an extended period of growth in all of the sciences on campus, particularly physics. As Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Ticho played a key role in recruiting top high-energy physicists to UC San Diego. This helped set the stage for the future group of researchers who were instrumental in the development, operation, and data analysis of the CMS detector at CERN. The team was instrumental in the discovery of the elusive Higgs-boson particle.

Ticho’s scientific activities have included membership on a number of review and advisory panels and committees, including the Scientific and Educational Advisory Committee of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory from 1975 to 1979, and the Board of Trustees of the Universities Research Association, Inc., which he served as vice chairman from 1978 to 1981. Ticho served as chairman of the Executive Management Committee for the Ten-Meter Keck Telescope Project, and he also served on the Scientific Policy Committee of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. 

Long-time colleague and Distinguished Professor of Physics Lu Sham recalled Ticho’s leadership role during an earlier period of limited state funding: “Harold Ticho was instrumental in laying the foundation for the general campus recovery and the beginning of the transformation of the campus from a small university to a large one.”

Ticho is survived by his brother Charles; stepson, Mike Wallace; his grandchildren; and beloved in-laws, nephews, nieces, and cousins from among the Ticho, Pansing, Wallace, Kravich and Klein families, all of whom admired and loved him.

Pradeep K. Khosla
Chancellor

Elizabeth H. Simmons
Executive Vice Chancellor

Steven E. Boggs
Dean, Division of Physical Sciences

M. Brian Maple
Professor and Chair, Department of Physics