John D. Barrow

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This article is about the English theoretical physicist John David Barrow. For other uses see John Barrow.

John David Barrow FRS (born November 29, 1952, London) is an English cosmologist, theoretical physicist, and mathematician. He is currently Research Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge. Barrow is also a writer of popular science and an amateur playwright.

Barrow obtained his first degree in Mathematics and physics from Van Mildert College at the University of Durham[1] in 1974. In 1977, he completed his doctorate in astrophysics at Magdalen College in the University of Oxford under Dennis William Sciama. He did two postdoctoral years in astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley.

In 1981 he joined the University of Sussex, rising to the rank of Professor. In 1999, he became Professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University. He is Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project, and Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College, London.

Barrow's writings, especially his The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (with Frank J. Tipler), summarise the state of the affairs of physical questions, often in the form of compendia of a large number of facts assembled from the works of great physicists, such as Paul Dirac. His popular approach to philosophical issues posed by physical cosmology have made his works accessible to the general reader.

Along with over 400 articles in journals, Barrow has published 17 books for a general readership, beginning with his 1983 The Left Hand of Creation. He has lectured at 10 Downing Street, Windsor Castle, the Vatican, and on various occasions to the general public. In 2002, his play Infinities premiered in Milan, played in Valencia, and won the Premi Ubu 2002 Italian Theatre Prize.

He was awarded the 2006 Templeton Prize for "Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities" for his "writings about the relationship between life and the universe, and the nature of human understanding [which] have created new perspectives on questions of ultimate concern to science and religion".[1] He is a member of a United Reformed Church, which he describes as teaching "a traditional deistic picture of the universe".[2]

Contents

[edit] Books

In English:

  1. Between Inner Space and Outer Space: Essays on the Science, Art, and Philosophy of the Origin of the Universe
  2. Impossibility: Limits of Science and the Science of Limits. ISBN 0-09-977211-6
  3. Material Content of the Universe
  4. Pi in the Sky: Counting, Thinking, and Being
  5. Science and Ultimate Reality: Quantum Theory, Cosmology and Complexity
  6. The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (with Frank J. Tipler). Oxford Uni. Press. ISBN 0-19-282147-4
  7. The Artful Universe: The Cosmic Source of Human Creativity
  8. The Book of Nothing: Vacuums, Voids, and the Latest Ideas about the Origins of the Universe
  9. The Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless
  10. The Left Hand of Creation: The Origin and Evolution of the Expanding Universe
  11. The Origin of the Universe: To the Edge of Space and Time
  12. The Universe That Discovered Itself
  13. The World Within the World
  14. Theories of Everything: The Quest for Ultimate Explanation
  15. The Constants of Nature: The Numbers that Encode the Deepest Secrets of the Universe

In other languages:

  1. L'Homme et le Cosmos (in French)
  2. Perché il Mondo è Matematico? (in Italian)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Publications available on the Internet

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