Jim Faller, one of the most scientifically distinguished of IU physics undergraduates, passed away in summer 2023. After graduating from IU in 1955, Faller joined the legendary gravity group of R. H. Dicke at Princeton, where Faller conceived of a way to measure the Earth-Moon distance using highly-polished mirrors assembled into a corner cube retroreflector. This idea was adopted by the Apollo program, and the measurements it enables have been used to conduct high precision tests of general relativity. The picture shows his device as it was carried onto the lunar surface.
Faller made major contributions to many other precision measurements of gravity, including one of the best measurements of Newton’s gravitational constant G. More detailed info on his work can be found at:
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