| Pantur Silaban | |
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photograph circa 1970
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| Born | 11 November 1937 Sidikalang, Dairi Indonesia |
| Died | - |
| Residence | Sumatera (Sidikalang) Syracuse (USA) Bandung (Indonesia) |
| Fields | Physics, theory of relativity, quantum theory |
| Institutions | Bandung Institute of Technology |
| Known for | Null Tetrad, Formulation of the Equation of Motion in General Relativity |
Pantur Silaban is one of the foremost physicists in Indonesia, especially in the field of theoretical physics. He is also one of the earliest physicists from ASEAN countries who studied Einstein's general relativity theories in depth.
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Born in Sumatra to Israel Silaban and Regina Lumbantoruan in Dairi village in Sumatra, Indonesia.
Silaban finished his bachelor degree in physics from Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia in 1966.
In 1967, he went to United States to study General Relativity theory at Central Studies of Gravitation at Syracuse University under direction of Peter Bergmann and Joshua N. Goldberg whom were among authoritative experts in general relativity after the inventor, Albert Einstein. Here, Pantur went furthermore studied one of the hottest topics in physics at the time which tried to unify quantum field and general relativity to find quantum gravity theory. It is one of Einstein's dream which had tried but failed to formalize the fourth interaction in the universe into one single theory called Grand Unified Theory. Pantur finished his dissertation with title "Null Tetrad, Formulation of the Equation of Motion in General Relativity" in 1971.
Having come back to Indonesia, Pantur became the first Indonesian scientist who studied Einstein's General Relativity to a doctoral level. Some of his research papers were published in General Relativity and Gravitation, the journal of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation.
Pantur became full professor at ITB in 1995.[1]