fbpx
Wikipedia

George F. R. Ellis

January 31, 2023

George Francis Rayner Ellis, FRS, Hon. FRSSAf (born 11 August 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.[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.

George F R Ellis
Born
George Francis Rayner Ellis

(1939-08-11) 11 August 1939 (age 83)
Johannesburg, South Africa
NationalitySouth African
EducationMichaelhouse
Alma mater
Known forTheoretical physical cosmology
AwardsTempleton Prize 2004
Scientific career
FieldsCosmology
Institutions
Doctoral advisorDennis W. Sciama[1]

Ellis, an active Quaker,[3][4][5] was a vocal opponent of apartheid during the National Party reign in the 1970s and 1980s, and it is during this period that Ellis's research focused on the more philosophical aspects of cosmology, for which he won the Templeton Prize in 2004.[6] He was also awarded the Order of the Star of South Africa by Nelson Mandela, in 1999. On 18 May 2007, he was elected a fellow of the British Royal Society.

Life

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 became 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.

In 2005 Ellis appeared as a guest speaker at the Nobel Conference in St. Peter, Minnesota.

Work

George Ellis has worked for many decades on anisotropic cosmologies (Bianchi models) and inhomogeneous universes, and on the philosophy of cosmology.[7] He is currently writing on the emergence of complexity, and the way this is enabled by top-down causation in the hierarchy of complexity.[8] Recently Ellis has also collaborated with Teppo Felin, Denis Noble, and Jan Koenderink on a set of articles published in the journal Genome Biology.[9][10] In terms of philosophy of science, Ellis is a Platonist.[11]

Publications

Books

  • ——; Hawking, S.W. (1973). The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time. Cambridge: University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-20016-5.[12]
  • ——; Dewar, David (1979). Low Income Housing Policy in South Africa. Urban Problems Research Unit, UCT.
  • ——; Williams, Ruth (1988). Flat and Curved Space Times (2000 revised ed.). Oxford University Press.
  • —— (1993). Before the Beginning: Cosmology Explained. Bowerdean/Marion Boyars.
  • ——; Lanza, A.; Miller, J. (1993). The Renaissance of General Relativity and Cosmology (2005 paperback ed.). Cambridge: University Press.
  • —— (1994). Science Research Policy in South Africa. Royal Society of South Africa.
  • ——; Murphy, Nancey (1996). On The Moral Nature of the universe: Cosmology, Theology, and Ethics. Fortress Press.
  • ——; Wainwright, John, eds. (1997). Dynamical Systems in Cosmology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-55457-2.
  • ——; Coles, Peter (1997). Is The Universe Open or Closed? The Density of Matter in the Universe. Cambridge: University Press.
  • ——, ed. (2002). The Far Future Universe. Templeton Foundation Press.
  • —— (2004). Science in Faith and Hope: an interaction. Quaker Books.
  • —— (2004a). Science and Ultimate Reality: Quantum Theory, Cosmology and Complexity. Cambridge: University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-83113-0.
  • —— (2006). Handbook in Philosophy of Physics. Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-444-53002-8.
  • ——; Maartens, Roy; MacCallum, Malcolm A. H. (2012). Relativistic Cosmology. Cambridge: University Press.
  • —— (2016). How Can Physics Underlie the Mind? Top-Down Causation in the Human Context. Springer.

Papers

Ellis has over 500 published articles; including 17 in Nature. Notable papers include:

  • —— (1978). "Is the universe expanding?". General Relativity and Gravitation. 9 (2): 87–94. Bibcode:1978GReGr...9...87E. doi:10.1007/BF00760145. ISSN 0001-7701. S2CID 122166325.
  • ——; Bruni, M. (1989). "Covariant and gauge-invariant approach to cosmological density fluctuations". Physical Review D. 40 (6): 1804–1818. Bibcode:1989PhRvD..40.1804E. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.40.1804. ISSN 0556-2821. PMID 10012011.
  • ——; Bruni, Marco; Dunsby, Peter K. S. (1992). "Cosmological perturbations and the physical meaning of gauge-invariant variables". The Astrophysical Journal. 395: 34. Bibcode:1992ApJ...395...34B. doi:10.1086/171629. ISSN 0004-637X.
  • ——; Coles, Peter (1994). "The case for an open Universe". Nature. 370 (6491): 609–615. Bibcode:1994Natur.370..609C. doi:10.1038/370609a0. ISSN 0028-0836. S2CID 4282835.
  • ——; van Elst, Henk (1999). "Cosmological models (Cargèse Lectures 1998)". Natoadv.studyinst.ser.c.math.phys.sci. 541: 1–116. arXiv:gr-qc/9812046v5. Bibcode:1999ASIC..541....1E.
  • ——; Virbhadra, K. S. (2000). "Schwarzschild black hole lensing". Physical Review D. 62 (8): 084003. arXiv:astro-ph/9904193. Bibcode:2000PhRvD..62h4003V. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.62.084003. ISSN 0556-2821. S2CID 15956589.
  • ——; Virbhadra, K. S. (2002). "Gravitational lensing by naked singularities". Physical Review D. 65 (10): 103004. Bibcode:2002PhRvD..65j3004V. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.65.103004. ISSN 0556-2821.
  • —— (2005). "Physics, complexity and causality". Nature. 435 (7043): 743. Bibcode:2005Natur.435..743E. doi:10.1038/435743a. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 15944681. S2CID 35850757.
  • —— (2012a). "Top down causation and emergence: some comments on mechanisms". Interface Focus. 2 (2): 126–140. doi:10.1098/rsfs.2011.0062. PMC 3262299. PMID 23386967.

Honours

In 2019 Rhodes University in Grahamstown announced it would award Ellis an honorary doctorate in laws (LLD, hc)[13]

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ George F. R. Ellis at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  2. ^ Gibbs, W. W. (1995). "Profile: George F. R. Ellis – Thinking Globally Acting Universally". Scientific American. 273 (4): 50–55. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1095-50.
  3. ^ Ellis, George F. R. (22 July 2014). "Physicist George Ellis Knocks Physicists for Knocking Philosophy, Falsification, Free Will". Cross-Check (Interview). Interviewed by John Horgan. Scientific American. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  4. ^ "The Theology of the Anthropic Principle". Counterbalance Foundation. Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  5. ^ Ellis, George F. R. (1993). "The Theology of the Anthropic Principle". In Russell, Robert John; Murphy, Nancey; Isham, Christopher J. (eds.). Quantum Cosmology and the Laws of Nature: Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action. Vatican City State: Vatican Observatory. pp. 367–405. ISBN 978-0-268-03976-9.
  6. ^ . Archived from the original on 24 February 2008. Retrieved 16 May 2007.
  7. ^ Ellis 2006, pp. 1183–1285.
  8. ^ Ellis 2012, pp. 126–140.
  9. ^ Felin, Teppo; Koenderink, Jan; Krueger, Joachim I.; Noble, Denis; Ellis, George F.R. (10 February 2021). "The data-hypothesis relationship". Genome Biology. 22 (1): 57. doi:10.1186/s13059-021-02276-4. ISSN 1474-760X. PMC 7874637. PMID 33568195.
  10. ^ Felin, Teppo; Koenderink, Jan; Krueger, Joachim I.; Noble, Denis; Ellis, George F. R. (10 February 2021). "Data bias". Genome Biology. 22 (1): 59. doi:10.1186/s13059-021-02278-2. ISSN 1474-760X. PMC 7874446. PMID 33568166.
  11. ^ Ellis 2004a, pp. 607–636.
  12. ^ Markus, Lawrence (1976). "Book Review: The large scale structure of space-time". Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. 82 (6): 805–818. doi:10.1090/S0002-9904-1976-14169-9. ISSN 0002-9904.
  13. ^ "Rhodes University honours five of Africa's best". grocotts.co.za. 7 March 2019. Retrieved 7 March 2019.

External links

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to George F. R. Ellis.
  • Partial list of Ellis' published papers
  • George Ellis's web page
  • Professor George Ellis: a man of many parts, Cape Argus, 18 March 2004
  • George Ellis's scientific work as listed at SPIRES[permanent dead link]
  • at the Wayback Machine (archived 1 April 2013) on with Krista Tippett (transcript)
  • George Ellis extended interview with transcript for the 'Why Are We Here?' documentary series.

January 31, 2023
george, ellis, george, francis, rayner, ellis, frssaf, born, august, 1939, emeritus, distinguished, professor, complex, systems, department, mathematics, applied, mathematics, university, cape, town, south, africa, authored, large, scale, structure, space, tim. George Francis Rayner Ellis FRS Hon FRSSAf born 11 August 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 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 George F R EllisBornGeorge Francis Rayner Ellis 1939 08 11 11 August 1939 age 83 Johannesburg South AfricaNationalitySouth AfricanEducationMichaelhouseAlma materUniversity of Cape Town University of CambridgeKnown forTheoretical physical cosmologyAwardsTempleton Prize 2004Scientific careerFieldsCosmologyInstitutionsUniversity of Cambridge SISSADoctoral advisorDennis W Sciama 1 Ellis an active Quaker 3 4 5 was a vocal opponent of apartheid during the National Party reign in the 1970s and 1980s and it is during this period that Ellis s research focused on the more philosophical aspects of cosmology for which he won the Templeton Prize in 2004 6 He was also awarded the Order of the Star of South Africa by Nelson Mandela in 1999 On 18 May 2007 he was elected a fellow of the British Royal Society Contents 1 Life 2 Work 3 Publications 3 1 Books 3 2 Papers 4 Honours 5 See also 6 Notes and references 7 External linksLife EditBorn 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 became 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 In 2005 Ellis appeared as a guest speaker at the Nobel Conference in St Peter Minnesota Work EditGeorge Ellis has worked for many decades on anisotropic cosmologies Bianchi models and inhomogeneous universes and on the philosophy of cosmology 7 He is currently writing on the emergence of complexity and the way this is enabled by top down causation in the hierarchy of complexity 8 Recently Ellis has also collaborated with Teppo Felin Denis Noble and Jan Koenderink on a set of articles published in the journal Genome Biology 9 10 In terms of philosophy of science Ellis is a Platonist 11 Publications EditBooks Edit Hawking S W 1973 The Large Scale Structure of Space Time Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 20016 5 12 Dewar David 1979 Low Income Housing Policy in South Africa Urban Problems Research Unit UCT Williams Ruth 1988 Flat and Curved Space Times 2000 revised ed Oxford University Press 1993 Before the Beginning Cosmology Explained Bowerdean Marion Boyars Lanza A Miller J 1993 The Renaissance of General Relativity and Cosmology 2005 paperback ed Cambridge University Press 1994 Science Research Policy in South Africa Royal Society of South Africa Murphy Nancey 1996 On The Moral Nature of the universe Cosmology Theology and Ethics Fortress Press Wainwright John eds 1997 Dynamical Systems in Cosmology Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 55457 2 Coles Peter 1997 Is The Universe Open or Closed The Density of Matter in the Universe Cambridge University Press ed 2002 The Far Future Universe Templeton Foundation Press 2004 Science in Faith and Hope an interaction Quaker Books 2004a Science and Ultimate Reality Quantum Theory Cosmology and Complexity Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 83113 0 2006 Handbook in Philosophy of Physics Elsevier ISBN 978 0 444 53002 8 Maartens Roy MacCallum Malcolm A H 2012 Relativistic Cosmology Cambridge University Press 2016 How Can Physics Underlie the Mind Top Down Causation in the Human Context Springer Papers Edit Ellis has over 500 published articles including 17 in Nature Notable papers include 1978 Is the universe expanding General Relativity and Gravitation 9 2 87 94 Bibcode 1978GReGr 9 87E doi 10 1007 BF00760145 ISSN 0001 7701 S2CID 122166325 Bruni M 1989 Covariant and gauge invariant approach to cosmological density fluctuations Physical Review D 40 6 1804 1818 Bibcode 1989PhRvD 40 1804E doi 10 1103 PhysRevD 40 1804 ISSN 0556 2821 PMID 10012011 Bruni Marco Dunsby Peter K S 1992 Cosmological perturbations and the physical meaning of gauge invariant variables The Astrophysical Journal 395 34 Bibcode 1992ApJ 395 34B doi 10 1086 171629 ISSN 0004 637X Coles Peter 1994 The case for an open Universe Nature 370 6491 609 615 Bibcode 1994Natur 370 609C doi 10 1038 370609a0 ISSN 0028 0836 S2CID 4282835 van Elst Henk 1999 Cosmological models Cargese Lectures 1998 Natoadv studyinst ser c math phys sci 541 1 116 arXiv gr qc 9812046v5 Bibcode 1999ASIC 541 1E Virbhadra K S 2000 Schwarzschild black hole lensing Physical Review D 62 8 084003 arXiv astro ph 9904193 Bibcode 2000PhRvD 62h4003V doi 10 1103 PhysRevD 62 084003 ISSN 0556 2821 S2CID 15956589 Virbhadra K S 2002 Gravitational lensing by naked singularities Physical Review D 65 10 103004 Bibcode 2002PhRvD 65j3004V doi 10 1103 PhysRevD 65 103004 ISSN 0556 2821 2005 Physics complexity and causality Nature 435 7043 743 Bibcode 2005Natur 435 743E doi 10 1038 435743a ISSN 0028 0836 PMID 15944681 S2CID 35850757 2012a Top down causation and emergence some comments on mechanisms Interface Focus 2 2 126 140 doi 10 1098 rsfs 2011 0062 PMC 3262299 PMID 23386967 Honours EditIn 2019 Rhodes University in Grahamstown announced it would award Ellis an honorary doctorate in laws LLD hc 13 See also EditList of science and religion scholarsNotes and references Edit George F R Ellis at the Mathematics Genealogy Project Gibbs W W 1995 Profile George F R Ellis Thinking Globally Acting Universally Scientific American 273 4 50 55 doi 10 1038 scientificamerican1095 50 Ellis George F R 22 July 2014 Physicist George Ellis Knocks Physicists for Knocking Philosophy Falsification Free Will Cross Check Interview Interviewed by John Horgan Scientific American Retrieved 13 October 2021 The Theology of the Anthropic Principle Counterbalance Foundation Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences Retrieved 13 October 2021 Ellis George F R 1993 The Theology of the Anthropic Principle In Russell Robert John Murphy Nancey Isham Christopher J eds Quantum Cosmology and the Laws of Nature Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action Vatican City State Vatican Observatory pp 367 405 ISBN 978 0 268 03976 9 Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities Archived from the original on 24 February 2008 Retrieved 16 May 2007 Ellis 2006 pp 1183 1285 Ellis 2012 pp 126 140 sfn error no target CITEREFEllis2012 help Felin Teppo Koenderink Jan Krueger Joachim I Noble Denis Ellis George F R 10 February 2021 The data hypothesis relationship Genome Biology 22 1 57 doi 10 1186 s13059 021 02276 4 ISSN 1474 760X PMC 7874637 PMID 33568195 Felin Teppo Koenderink Jan Krueger Joachim I Noble Denis Ellis George F R 10 February 2021 Data bias Genome Biology 22 1 59 doi 10 1186 s13059 021 02278 2 ISSN 1474 760X PMC 7874446 PMID 33568166 Ellis 2004a pp 607 636 Markus Lawrence 1976 Book Review The large scale structure of space time Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 82 6 805 818 doi 10 1090 S0002 9904 1976 14169 9 ISSN 0002 9904 Rhodes University honours five of Africa s best grocotts co za 7 March 2019 Retrieved 7 March 2019 External links Edit Wikiquote has quotations related to George F R Ellis Partial list of Ellis published papers George Ellis s web page Professor George Ellis a man of many parts Cape Argus 18 March 2004 George Ellis s scientific work as listed at SPIRES permanent dead link Interview with George Ellis Recorded June 2004 at the Wayback Machine archived 1 April 2013 on Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippett transcript George Ellis extended interview with transcript for the Why Are We Here documentary series Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title George F R Ellis amp oldid 1136191031, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.