Werner Israel

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Werner Israel, OC, FRSC, FRS (born October 4, 1931) is a Canadian physicist.

Born in Berlin, Germany and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, he received his B.Sc. in 1951 and his M.Sc. in 1954 from the University of Cape Town. He received his Ph.D. in 1960 from Trinity College, Dublin.

In 1990, together with Eric Poisson, Israel pioneered the study of black hole interiors and, following up a suggestion of Roger Penrose, discovered the important phenomenon of mass inflation (which should not be confused with inflationary cosmology).

He is a Fellow in the cosmology programme of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Until his retirement in 1996 he was a Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Alberta. In 1996 he was appointed Adjunct Professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Victoria. Together with Stephen Hawking, he has coedited two important celebratory volumes.

[edit] Honours

• 1972: Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
• 1986: Fellow of the Royal Society
• 1993: Officer of the Order of Canada

[edit] References

• Israel, Werner (1998). "The interior structure of black holes", in Robert M. Wald (ed.): Black Holes and Relativistic Stars. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1237-154. ISBN 0-226-87034-0. 

• Israel, W.; & Poisson, E. (1990). "Internal structure of black holes". Phys. Rev. D 41: 1796-1809. 

• Hawking, S. W.; & Israel, W. (1987). Three Hundred Years of Gravitation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-34312-7. 

• Hawking, S. W.; & Israel, W. (1979). General Relativity : an Einstein Centenary Survey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-22285-0.