ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Landau’s contributions to astrophysics were deep, as witnessed by the papers at this conference on neutron stars and supernovae, but not nearly as broad as those in other fields, such as condensed matter and particle physics. The explanation I have heard is that Landau felt that astronomers were always changing their stories on him. Whether or not that is apocryphal, it does reflect the situation: if you want to do astrophysics it is one of the conditions you must learn to live with. Yakov Zeldovich, whose memory we are also celebrating at this conference, was a master at doing physics on this slippery ground. My last chance to talk with Zeldovich was at the IAU Symposium No. 130, on the largescale structure of the universe, at Balatonfured, Hungary, in June 1987. We see one aspect that was hard to miss-a deep appreciation of life and all it has to offer. It did not take much further study to discover that here was someone who loved doing physics, was generous in his help to others, and a wonderful physicist. Through all my career in cosmology I could be sure that if Zeldovich was not hard on my heels it was because he was racing far ahead.
