James Lloyd

James Patrick Lloyd (Jamie) was born in Vienna, Austria on Jan. 4, 1971, the son of Peter and Elizabeth (Libby) Lloyd. He grew up primarily in Canberra, Australia, but spent several years of his childhood overseas due to his father’s postings as a diplomat. By the time he went to university, Jamie had already lived in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in physics with First Class Honors from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, in 1994. While at university he became involved in theatre through his interest in sound and light, and formed many life-long friendships with other members of the Med and Law Revue community. Though briefly entertaining the idea of life on the road doing tech for musicians, Jamie ended up solidly on the career path for astrophysics when he became involved in research that took him to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, where he wintered over in 1995 and 1996. For that work he was awarded the United States Navy Antarctica Service Medal with Gold Winterover Bar. While at the pole he developed a tolerance for snow, a love of techno music, and a penchant for telling stories about the importance of eating breakfast in cold climates.

He began a PhD at the University of California as a Fullbright Scholar when he returned from the pole, and two years later married his wife, Aoise Stratford, whom he had met doing revues at university. They lived in the Bay Area until Jamie earned his doctorate in 2002 and then moved to Pasadena for Jamie to take up a postdoctoral scholarship at the California Institute of Technology.

In 2004 following his post-doc, Jamie accepted a position in the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University, where he spent the rest of his career. Jamie worked on extrasolar planets and developed astronomical instruments for detection and imaging, experimenting in particular with aperture masking interferometry. Jamie was also on the mechanical and aerospace engineering faculty, working with collaborators on instrumentation and spacecraft engineering. His research led to some significant discoveries in the astronomical community, but he as much a teacher as a researcher. One of his favorite classes was an observational astronomy class in the Hartung-Boothroyd Observatory, a facility that he was largely responsible for, and which appears in the music video for REM’s Stand, much to Jamie’s delight. Over the years he also conducted tours and star watching at the observatory for his daughters’ girl scout troops, alumni groups, and interested community members. Jamie was named a Cornell University Outstanding Educator in 2009. He is remembered by colleagues, collaborators and former graduate students as a funny, generous, and smart friend, a dedicated mentor, and a creative scientist.

In his spare time Jamie sailed, baked, and skied. He was an active member of the Cayuga Cruising Yacht Fleet and spent many long wet days and nights sailing up and down Cayuga Lake with friends. When the lake froze, Jamie went skiing. He was a dedicated volunteer for both the Greek Peak Ski Club and more extensively for the Adaptive Ski Program, where he devoted many hours to sharing his love for skiing with children and adults with disabilities. He loved going out to the mountain early to get first tracks after dropping off homemade cinnamon rolls for the kids on the ski team or checking in at the adaptive building.

Jamie is much-missed and remembered with enormous love and gratitude by his wife, Aoise, and their three children, Rowena, Gwen and Hugo, to whom Jamie was a proud and devoted father. He believed greatly in family and will also be much-missed and remembered with love by his parents, and his brother Dan and sister Justine, and their partners, Katrina and Juke, and by his wife’s family, Conal, Allegra and Costa. He was the proud uncle of Clover, Maya, Rubin, Miller, Sarah, Ainslie and Will. He will be deeply missed by collaborators, former students, fellow skiers, and friends throughout the USA and in Australia.

In lieu of flowers, the family invite contributions to the Greek Peak Adaptive Snowsports program, in Jamie’s memory:https://greek-peak-adaptive-snowsports.square.site/s/order?cs=true&cst=popular