(1919-) Austrian-born British cosmologist. In 1948 he joined with Fred Hoyle and Thomas Gold in developing the steady-state theory of cosmology 1948, which suggested that matter is continuously created in the universe.
Bondi was born in Vienna and studied mathematics at Cambridge University. While interned 1940 as an “enemy alien” in the UK, during World War II, he met Thomas Gold. Bondi returned to Cambridge 1941 and began to do naval radar work for the British Admiralty 1942; through this work he met Fred Hoyle. Gold soon joined them and the three discussed cosmology and related subjects. Bondi’s academic career after the war was spent mostly at Cambridge and King’s College, London.
The steady-state model stimulated much debate for, while its ideas were revolutionary, it was fully compatible with existing knowledge. However, evidence that the universe had once been denser and hotter emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, and the theory was abandoned by most scientists.
Bondi also described the likely characteristics and physical properties of gravitational waves, and demonstrated that such waves are compatible with and are indeed a necessary consequence of the general theory of relativity.

Town SE Australia S of entrance to Port Jackson on Bondi Beach; SE suburb of Sydney.