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南非名人【1】- 著名宇宙学家
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George F. R. Ellis
【南非开普敦大学荣休教授，1973年与霍金合著名著《时空的大尺度结构》
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George F. R. Ellis, FRS, (born August 11, 1939) is the Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Complex Systems in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He co-authored The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time with University of Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking, published in 1973, and is considered one of the world's leading theorists in cosmology. He is an active Quaker and in 2004 he won the Templeton Prize[1]. From 1989 to 1992 he served as President of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation. Currently he is President of the International Society for Science and Religion.
Ellis was a vocal opponent of apartheid during the National Party reign in the 1970s and 1980s, and it is during this period that Ellis' research has focused on the more philosophical aspects of cosmology, for which he won the Templeton Prize. He was also awarded the Order of the Star of South Africa by Nelson Mandela, in 1999. On May 18, 2007, he was elected a Fellow of the British Royal Society.
In 2005 Ellis appeared as a guest speaker at the Nobel Conference in St. Peter, Minnesota.
Biography
Born in 1939 to George Rayner Ellis, a newspaper editor, and Gwendoline Hilda MacRobert Ellis in Johannesburg, George Francis Rayner Ellis attended the University of Cape Town, where he graduated with honours in 1960 with a Bachelor of Science degree in physics with distinction. He represented the university in fencing, rowing and flying.
While a student at Cambridge University, where he received a PhD. in applied maths and theoretical physics in 1964, he was on college rowing teams.
At
Ellis rapidly established himself within academic circles, becoming a visiting professor at the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago in 1970, a lecturer at the Cargese Summer School in Corsica in 1971 and the Erice Summer School in Sicily in 1972, and a visiting H3 professor at the University of Hamburg, also in 1972.
The following year, Ellis co-wrote The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time with Stephen Hawking, debuting at a strategic moment in the development of General Relativity Theory.
In the following year, Ellis returned to
Ideas
George Ellis proposed a model universe that contains a naked singularity as a recycling mechanism, which he claims gives almost as good a description of the real universe as the conventional model.
The Ellis universe is like a cylinder-shaped universe, except that the Earth is located on one side and a naked singularity on the other. There is no cosmic inflation – the galaxies are arranged very unevenly, with a great deal of material crowded round the singularity, and very little near the Earth. The effect of such a distribution of matter is to produce a red shift of light that, at the Earth, has the same characteristics as if the galaxies were receding.
In terms of philosophy of science, Ellis is a Platonist.
Professor of Applied Mathematics, FRS
?Professor Emeritus, Mathematics Department, University of Cape Town, Cape Town.
?G C McVittie Visiting Professor of Astronomy, Queen Mary (
Degrees: B.Sc.(Hons) (
Email: George.ellis_@_uct.ac.za
Past Positions:
?Lecturer, DAMTP (
?Professor of Cosmic Physics, SISSA (
?Visiting Professor:
Honours/Positions:
?National Research Foundation (NRF) A-rating.
?Fellow and Past President of the Royal Society of South Africa (RSSA).
?Founder Member and past Member of Council of Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf).
?Past President of the International Society for General Relativity and Gravitation.
?Fellow of the University of Cape Town.
?Honorary Degrees:
?Herschel Medal (RSSA), Achievement Award (Claude Harris Leon Foundation),
?Gold Medal: South African Association for the Advancement of Science (S2A3),
?Gold Medal (S A Mathematical Society).
?Member of the drafting team of the DACST Green Paper on Science and Technology after President Mandela’s election, which lead to the White Paper.
? Past Member of the InterAcademy Council (
? Joint Editor in Chief of the International Journal of General Relativity and Gravitation (from January 2006).
? Star of South Africa Medal presented by President Nelson Mandela (1999).
? 2004 Templeton Prize winner (presented by Prince Philip at
? Fellow of the Third World Academy of Science (TWAS), 2004.
? NSTF 2004 award for an individual contribution to Science and Technology over a lifetime.
? Academy of Science of South Africa Science-for-Society gold medal (2005).
? Order of Mapungubwe (Silver) conferred by President Thabo Mbeki (2006).
? FRS (Fellow of the Royal Society,
? Honorary Fellow, Royal Society of South Africa (2008)
Representative publications (books):
? The Large Scale Structure of Space Time (with Stephen Hawking):
Cambridge University Press, 1973 and reprints [4908 citations]; Russian and Chinese editions.
? Low Income Housing Policy in South Africa, (with David Dewar):
Urban Problems Research Unit, UCT, 1979.
? Flat and Curved Space Times, (with Ruth Williams):
Oxford University Press, 1988, revised 2nd edition 2000.
Bowerdean/Marion Boyars, 1993.
? The Renaissance of General Relativity and Cosmology, (with A Lanza and J Miller):
University Press,
? Science Research Policy in South Africa,
Royal Society of
? On The Moral Nature of the universe: Cosmology, Theology, and Ethics, (with Nancey Murphy):
Fortress Press, 1996; Russian and Chinese editions.
? Dynamical systems in cosmology, (with John Wainwright, Eds.):
Cambridge University Press, 1996; paperback, 2005.
? Is The Universe Open or Closed? The Density of Matter in the Universe, (with Peter Coles):
? The Far Future Universe, (Ed.):
Templeton Foundation Press, 2002.
? Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will (Ed., with Nancey Murphy and Timothy O’Connor). Springer:
Representative publications (papers on cosmology/relativity):
?“Cosmological Models” (with Henk van Elst):, Cargese lectures 1998.
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9812046.
?“Cosmic microwave background anisotropies: Nonlinear dynamics” (with Roy Maartens and Tim Gebbie):, Phys.Rev. D59 (1999) 083506. http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9808163.
?“On Holography and Cosmology” (with Reza Tavakol): Phys.Lett. B469 (1999) 37.
http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9908093 .
? “83 years of general relativity and cosmology: progress and problems”.
Class. Quantum Grav. 16 (December 1999) A37-A75.
? “Cosmology and Local Physics”, Int.J.Mod.Phys. A17 (2002) 2667-2672.
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0102017 .
?“`c' is the speed of light, isn't it?” (with Jean Phillipe Uzan):
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0305099 .
? “The past attractor in inhomogeneous cosmology” (with Claes Uggla, Henk van Elst, John Wainwright):
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0304002 .
? “WMAP data and the curvature of space.” (with Jean Phillipe Uzan and Uli Kirchner):
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0302597 .
? “On the Stability of the Einstein Static Universe” (with John D Barrow, Roy Maartens, and Christos Tsagas):, Class.Quant.Grav. 20 (2003) L155-L164.
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0302094 .
?“The Emergent Universe: inflationary cosmology with no singularity” (with Roy Maartens):
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0211082 .
? “The Emergent Universe: An Explicit Construction” (with Jeff Murugan and Christos G. Tsagas):
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0307112 .
? “Multiverses and physical cosmology” (with Uli Kirchner and Bill Stoeger):.
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0305292 .
?“An emergent universe from a loop” (with David Mulryne, Reza Tavakol, James E. Lidsey).
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0502589.
? “The universe seen at different scales” (with Thomas Buchert):.
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0506106.
? "Issues in the Philosophy of Cosmology”.
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0602280.
? “Physics in the real universe: time and spacetime”.
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0605049 .
?“Causality and the speed of sound” (with Roy Maartens and Malcolm MacCallum):. http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0703121.
? “Time drift of cosmological redshifts as a test of the Copernican principle” (with Jean-Philippe Uzan and Chris Clarkson):
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/0801.0068.
?“A note on infinities in eternal inflation” (with Bill Stoeger). To appear, GRG Journal.
?“Dark matter and dark energy proposals: maintaining cosmology as a true science?” Paper for CRAL-IPNL conference "Dark Energy and Dark Matter", Lyon 2008.
?“On the flow of time”. For the FQXI “THE NATURE OF TIME” essay contest.
Representative publications (papers on education/developmental issues):
? A view on the school maths syllabus. (CASME talk, 1995).
? The Development of Quantitative Social Indicators. (Notes 2001).
? South African Developmental Issues. SAIRR (
Representative publications (papers on complexity/emergence):
?Notes on reductionism and the emergence of complexity.
?Physics and the real world [full length Foundations of Physics article supporting shorter Nature version].
(with Gennaro Auletta and Luc Jaeger): Journal of the Royal Society Interface 5:1159-1172 (2008).
?On the nature of causation in complex systems (extended version of RSSA Centenary Transactions paper).
Representative publications (papers on the brain):
?Neural Development: Affective and Immune System Influences. (with Judith Toronchuk):
In Consciousness and Emotion: Agency, Conscious Choice, and Selective Perception Ed R D. Ellis and
?Disgust: Sensory Affect or Primary Emotional System? (with Judith Toronchuk):
Cognition & Emotion, 21 (2007), 1799 – 1818.
?Affective Neuronal Darwinism: The Nature of the Primary Emotional Systems. (with Judith Toronchuk).
? Commentary on “An Evolutionarily Informed Education Science” by David C Geary.Educational Psychologist 43 (4), 206-213 (2008).
?Language Infinities. (with Bill Stoeger).
Web Notes:
?The Universe Around Us: An Integrative View of Science and Cosmology.
I am currently chairperson of Quaker Service (Cape), and am on the board of the Association for Educational Transformation (ASSET). ELRU, Philani, and The Little Hands Trust are other inspiring local organisations (I was on the Boards of ELRU and Philani for many years). I am an avid fan and supporter of the Pro Cantu Youth Choir. I am an amateur photographer on my mountain walks; the photos below are from an exhibition I held in 1999.
https://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-72754-239733.html
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