| George F R Ellis | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 11, 1939 Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Residence | South Africa |
| Nationality | South African |
| Fields | Cosmology |
| Institutions | University of Cape Town; previously University of Cambridge and SISSA |
| Alma mater | Michaelhouse, Cape Town and Cambridge |
| Doctoral advisor | Dennis W. Sciama |
| Doctoral students | John M. Stewart Malcolm A.H. MacCallum Andrew R. King Roy Maartens Marco Bruni Henk van Elst Tim Gebbie Jeffrey Murugan Ulrich Kirchner |
| Known for | Theoretical physical cosmology |
| Notable awards | Templeton Prize 2004 |
George Francis Rayner 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.[1] He is an active Quaker and in 2004 he won the Templeton Prize.[2] From 1989 to 1992 he served as President of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation. He is a past President of the International Society for Science and Religion. He is an A-rated researcher with the NRF.
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.
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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 Cambridge, Ellis served as a research fellow from 1965 to 1967, was assistant lecturer in the department of applied mathematics and theoretical physics until 1970, and was then appointed university lecturer, serving until 1974.
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 South Africa to accept an appointment as Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape Town, a position he held until his retirement in 2005.
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.
In terms of philosophy of science, Ellis is a Platonist.
Ellis has over 500 published articles[3] including 17 in Nature. Notable papers include:
See also the transcript of the above radio interview ...
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