Gordon Baym received his Bachelor's Degree in physics from Cornell in 1956, A.M. in mathematics from Harvard in 1957, and Ph.D. in physics from Harvard in 1960. He has been at the Department of Physics at UIUC since 1963. Being a major leader in the study of matter under extreme conditions in astrophysics and nuclear physics, he has made original, seminal contributions to our understanding of neutron stars, relativistic effects in nuclear physics, condensed matter physics, quantum fluids and Bose-Einstein condensates. His work is characterized by a superb melding of basic theoretical physics concepts, from condensed matter to nuclear to elementary particle world.