Thomas Gold (1920–2004), Astrophysicist.

Thomas Gold, born in 1920 in Vienna, Austria to an industrialist Jewish family, fled from the Nazis to England after Austria's Anschluss in 1938. There, he eventually went to work at Cambridge University before moving to the United States in 1956. Gold is known as an astrophysicist who, with colleagues at Cambridge, proposed the steady state hypothesis of the universe and made substantial contributions to astrophysics, astronomy, and aerospace engineering. In the United States Gold first served as Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University before accepting an appointment at Cornell University in 1957. Meanwhile, he also worked with NASA, serving on several national committees while the United States developed its space program.

In addition, Gold also performed research in biophysics; specifically including the origins of petroleum. His work was awarded with numerous distinctions and Gold was recognized as "one of the outstanding physicists of his time."