Reva Williams

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Reva Kay Williams
Alma materMalcolm X College
Northwestern University
Indiana University Bloomington
Known forPenrose process

Gravitomagnetism

Frame-dragging
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Toledo
University of Florida

Reva Kay Williams is an American astrophysicist at the University of Toledo. She is generally considered to be the first Black-American woman to receive a PhD in astrophysics.[1] She is also the first person to successfully work out the Penrose mechanism to extract energy from black holes.[2] The Penrose mechanism uses Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity to extract energy from the ergosphere of a rotating black hole.

Early life and education

Williams was born in Memphis, Tennessee. She moved to Chicago at the age of 6 and studied at Malcolm X College, earning an A.A. in liberal arts in 1977 and being voted graduate student of the year.[3] She studied astronomy at Northwestern University, earning a B.A. in 1980. She joined Indiana University Bloomington for her MA and PhD, achieving her doctorate in astrophysics in 1991.[1]

Career

Williams was awarded a National Research Council postdoctoral minority fellowship and moved to the University of Florida in 1993. She joined Bennett College in 1998, winning the Belle Ringer Image Role Model Award, and acting as an Associate Professor of Astrophysics and Director, Center for Women and Science. Her work considered gravitomagnetism. She looked at the Penrose scattering process in the ergosphere of Kerr black holes.[4][2] This formed a major part of her research, searching for the energy sources of active galactic nuclei. Williams was the first person to work out the Penrose mechanism of black holes.[5][6][7] Her calculations explained that black hole jets are emitted as escaping tornado-like coils of photons and electrons - black holes drag spacetime into rotation near their cores, which may also produce uneven jets.[8][9] She showed that the Lense-Thirring Effect could cause the high energies and luminosities.[2][10] She became interested in gravitational instabilities and the form of dark matter in the early universe, but was unable to remain at the University of Florida after her postdoctoral fellowship ended. She also looked at how black holes could be used to power gamma-ray bursts. She struggled to get funding for her research when the University of Florida decided against supporting relativistic astrophysics research and did not extend her fellowship.

Since 2009 she has been a research assistant professor at the University of Toledo.[11] She was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to study the jet structure and energy generation of quasars and other active galactic nuclei.[12][13] This study combines Monte Carlo simulations with the physics of general relativistic supermassive Kerr black holes.[12] Having demonstrated that Kerr black holes can provide the energy of active galactic nuclei,[2] she hopes to create a unified model showing that active galactic nuclei, microquasars, and gamma-ray bursts are powered by rotating black holes of different masses and/or accretion disk properties.[12] She also works on dark energy and whether it could be a manifestation of gravity.[14]

Professor Williams is scheduled to give the plenary at the astrobiology conference, AbSciCon, in the fall of 2021, organized by American Geophysical Union and NASA.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b "ASTRONOMERS of the African Diaspora (1997-05-27)". www.math.buffalo.edu. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  2. ^ a b c d Williams, Reva Kay (1995-05-15). "Extracting x rays, γ rays, and relativistic e-e+ pairs from supermassive Kerr black holes using the Penrose mechanism". Physical Review D. 51 (10): 5387–5427. Bibcode:1995PhRvD..51.5387W. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.51.5387. PMID 10018300.
  3. ^ "Alumna Dr Reva Kay Williams" (PDF). APPS. 2004-11-04. Retrieved 2018-11-10.
  4. ^ Williams, Reva Kay (November 1999). "Extracting Energy-Momentum from Rotating Black Holes Using the Penrose Mechanism". APS Southeastern Section Meeting Abstracts. 66: JD.03. Bibcode:1999APS..SES..JD03W.
  5. ^ Williams, Reva Kay (June 2005). "Gravitomagnetic Field and Penrose Scattering Processes". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1045 (1): 232–245. Bibcode:2005NYASA1045..232W. doi:10.1196/annals.1350.018. ISSN 0077-8923. PMID 15980315.
  6. ^ Carey, Charles W. (2008). African Americans in Science: An Encyclopedia of People and Progress. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781851099986.
  7. ^ Williams, Reva Kay (2004-04-06). "A Word from a Black Female Relativistic Astrophysicist: Setting the Record Straight on Black Holes". arXiv:physics/0404029.
  8. ^ Florida, University of. "08 » Astrophysicist Helps Crack A Black Hole Mystery: Energy Jets » University of Florida". news.ufl.edu. Retrieved 2018-11-10.
  9. ^ Williams, R. K. (2004). "Collimated Escaping Vortical Polar e−e+Jets Intrinsically Produced by Rotating Black Holes and Penrose Processes". The Astrophysical Journal. 611 (2): 952–963. arXiv:astro-ph/0404135. Bibcode:2004ApJ...611..952W. doi:10.1086/422304.
  10. ^ Williams, Reva Kay (2003-06-06). "Production of the High Energy-Momentum Spectra of Quasars 3C 279 and 3C 273 Using the Penrose Mechanism". arXiv:astro-ph/0306135.
  11. ^ "Research Assistant Professor - Williams, Reva-Kay". www.utoledo.edu. Retrieved 2018-11-10.
  12. ^ a b c "NSF Award Search: Award#0909098 - Theoretical and Numerical Investigation of a Unified Astrophysical Rotating Black Hole Model for Active Galactic Nuclei, Microquasars, and Gamma-Ray Bursters". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved 2018-11-10.
  13. ^ "Physics & Astronomy News". www.utoledo.edu. Retrieved 2018-11-10.
  14. ^ Williams, Reva Kay (2011-09-26). "Could Dark Energy be a Manifestation of Gravity?". arXiv:1109.5652 [physics.gen-ph].
  15. ^ "Absicon 2021 Speakers & Topics". Retrieved 2020-10-10.
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