Wallace Leslie William Sargent (born 1935) is an American astronomer. He is often known as Wal Sargent. Although now a U.S. citizen, he was born in Elsham, England. He received his Ph.D. in 1959 from Manchester University before coming to work at Caltech where he has worked ever since (excepting an absence of four years during which he claims to have had to go back to England to find himself a wife, Anneila Sargent).
Sargent is known for his studies of quasar absorption lines. He is currently the Ira S. Bowen Professor of Astronomy at Caltech.
He has supervised the theses of a number of students while at Caltech, including John Huchra, Edwin Turner, Charles C. Steidel, and Alex Filippenko.
He is married to fellow Caltech astronomer Anneila Sargent.
Awards
Named after him