Ignazio Ciufolini

Ignazio Ciufolini (born in Rome, Italy) is an Italian physicist active in the field of gravitational physics and General Relativity. He graduated 'Magna cum Laude' in 1980 at Sapienza University of Rome and awarded the PhD degree in Physics in 1984 at University of Texas at Austin. His PhD committee was composed by John Archibald Wheeler, Richard Matzner, Steven Weinberg, Bryce DeWitt, and Larry Shepley.^[1][2][3][4] From 1982 to 1988 he worked at University of Texas at Austin as teaching assistant, lecturer and research associate. He is Associate Professor of General Physics at University of Salento (Italy),^[5] tenured since 1999, and a member of Centro Fermi, Rome.^[6] He collaborated with John Archibald Wheeler, with whom in 1995 wrote the book Gravitation and Inertia (the book awarded the Association of American Publishers' PROSE Award as the best 1995 professional and scholar book in physics and astronomy).^[7][8] He works mainly in the field of General Relativity and Gravitational Physics. He proposed also a method to measure the effects of gravitomagnetism using the data from the laser ranged satellites LAGEOS and LAGEOS-2.^[9][10][11] Ignazio Ciufolini is the Principal Investigator for the Italian Space Agency (ASI) of the Laser Relativity Satellite (LARES) mission, a space mission aimed to improve the accuracy of the measurement of frame-dragging.

Awards and Honours

The honors and awards received include:

• 1995. Award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence of the Association of American Publishers, PROSE Award, as author (with John A. Wheeler) of the best 1995 professional and scholar book in physics and astronomy (Gravitation and Inertia).
• 2001. International Tomassoni-Chisesi Award for Physics of Sapienza, University of Rome.
• 2007. Cover of the 6 September issue of Nature dedicated to his review paper on Dragging of Inertial Frames and General Relativity.^[9]
• 2010. International Occhialini Prize and Medal of the UK Institute of Physics (IOP) and Italian Physical Society (SIF) awarded in London by Jocelyn Bell Burnell, president of IOP, for providing further experimental confirmation of Einstein's theory of General Relativity through the use of laser-ranged satellites to study and measure frame-dragging.^[12]

References

1. ↑ "Curriculum Vitae of Ignazio Ciufolini". Retrieved 9 January 2014. 
2. ↑ Clippard, Lee (20 February 2012). "UT Researchers Send Experimental Satellite into Space". The Alcalde. Retrieved 9 January 2014. 
3. ↑ "Ignazio Ciufolini, PhD Thesis Title with Signatures". Retrieved 9 January 2014. 
4. ↑ "I. Ciufolini, PhD Thesis: "Theory and experiments in general relativity and other metric theories of gravity"". Retrieved 9 January 2014. 
5. ↑ "Ignazio Ciufolini personal card" (in Italian). Retrieved 9 January 2014. 
6. ↑ "Ignazio Ciufolini personal page on Centro Studi e Ricerche Enrico Fermi web site". Retrieved 9 January 2014. 
7. ↑ Ignazio Ciufolini and John Archibald Wheeler. Gravitation and Inertia. Princeton University Press. Princeton, New Jersey (1995). ISBN 0-691-03323-4.
8. ↑ AAP PROSE Awards 1995 Winners. http://pspcentral.org/rtAwards/attachArchive/winners_95.rtf
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Ciufolini, I. (6 September 2007). "Dragging of inertial frames". Nature 449 (7158): 41–47. Bibcode:2007Natur.449...41C. doi:10.1038/nature06071. PMID 17805287. 
10. ↑ Ciufolini, I. (1986). "Measurement of the Lense-Thirring drag on high-altitude, laser-ranged artificial satellites". Physical Review Letters 56 (4): 278–281. Bibcode:1986PhRvL..56..278C. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.56.278. PMID 10033146. 
11. ↑ Ciufolini, I.; Pavlis, E. C. (2004). "A confirmation of the general relativistic prediction of the Lense–Thirring effect". Nature 431 (7011): 958–960. Bibcode:2004Natur.431..958C. doi:10.1038/nature03007. PMID 15496915. 
12. ↑ https://www.iop.org/about/awards/bilateral/occhialini/medallists/page_38497.html

External links

• LARES Mission official web site