Fred Begay
Photo of Dr. Fred Begay distributed on the occasion of his election to the New York Academy of Sciences.
Born	(1932-07-02)July 2, 1932 Towaoc, Colorado
Died	April 30, 2013(2013-04-30) (aged 80)
Citizenship	Navajo, Ute
Alma mater	University of New Mexico (B.S, M.S., PhD)
Spouse	Helen Smith
Children	8
Scientific career
Fields	Nuclear physics
Thesis	Development of the OSO-6 High-Energy Neutron Detector and Correlation of Measured Solar Neutron Fluxes to Solar Flares (1971)
Doctoral advisor	C.P. Leavitt

Fred Begay (July 2, 1932 – April 30, 2013), also Fred Young or Clever Fox, was a Navajo/ Ute nuclear physicist. ^[1] Begay was born in Towaoc, Colorado on the Ute Mountain Indian Reservation. ^[2] His work was in the alternative use of laser, electron and ion beams to heat thermonuclear plasmas for use as alternative energy sources. ^[2]

Early life

Begay suka was born in Towaoc, Colorado, on the Ute Mountain Indian Reservation. ^[2] He was the son of Joy Lopez ( Navajo, Ute) and Hosteen Begay (Navajo). Fred Begay was only six when his mother and father, both Navajo healers, began teaching him the songs of the Blessingway ceremony. ^[3] Begay spoke both Indigenous languages from his mother and father but did not learn English until age 10, when he attended a Bureau of Indian Affairs school in Ignacio, Colorado. The teachers there trained him to be a farmer until he turned 18.

Never graduating, he enlisted in the Army and went to fight in the Korean War. Fred served in the US Air Force during 1951-1955 and was assigned to an air-rescue squadron in Korea. In 1952, he married Helen Smith from Shiprock. When he came home in 1955, he returned to his mother's 30-acre farm with the intention of growing corn and raising children. Helen and Fred Begay had eight beautiful children: Fred Jr, Joyce, William, Janet, Terry, Christina, John and Carolyn. ^[4]

Science career

Begay attended the University of New Mexico (UNM), where he earned a bachelor's degree in math and science with honors in 1961. ^[5] He got master's degree in physics in 1963 and a doctorate in nuclear physics in 1971. ^[6] He joined the physics staff of Los Alamos National Laboratory. He was also part of a NASA-funded space physics research team at UNM to conduct fundamental studies on the origin of high energy gamma rays and solar neutrons from 1960-1963 and again from 1965-1972. ^[7] He also held research and teaching fellowships at Stanford University and the University of Maryland. ^[8] Begay also had a tenure of nearly 30 years in the Los Alamos National Laboratory's laser program. ^[9]

Begay was profiled in the 1979 NOVA documentary The Long Walk of Fred Young. ^{[10] [11]}

References