George FR Ellis

George Francis Rayner Ellis (born August 11, 1939 in Johannesburg , South Africa ) is a cosmologist and professor of applied mathematics at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

life and work

Ellis graduated from Cape Town University and received his PhD from Cambridge University . There he was a lecturer (Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, DAMPT) and later a professor in Cape Town.

Ellis was visiting professor at the University of Texas, the University of Chicago, the Boston University, the University of Alberta, the University of London (Queen Mary College) and the University of Hamburg. He was also a professor at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste.

In addition to his more than 200 scientific publications on cosmology and the theory of relativity , Ellis is (together with Stephen Hawking ) the co-author of the standard work The Large scale Structure of Space Time . He is considered one of the world's leading cosmologists.

An active Quaker and anti- apartheid activist, he won the Templeton Prize in 2004 for his contributions to the relationship between religion and science. He also deals with philosophical issues and has published about them.

Memberships and honors

He has been a Fellow of the Royal Society since 2007 and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa , of which he was President and of which he received the Herschel Medal. He was President of the International Society for General Relativity and Gravitation and is a Fellow of the Third World Academy of Science. He received the gold medal from the South African Association for the Advancement of Science, the gold medal from the Academy of Science of South Africa, and the gold medal from the South African Mathematical Society. In 2010 he received the De Beers Gold Medal from the South African Institute of Physics.

Ellis is an Honorary Doctor of Haverford College, the University of Natal, Queen Mary College, University of London and a Fellow and Honorary Doctor of the University of Cape Town.

Others

He is considered a sharp critic of Frank Tipler's omega point theory .

Publications (selection)

Books:

with Stephen Hawking The Large Scale Structure of Space-time. Cambridge University Press, 1973, ISBN 0-521-09906-4
with Ruth M. Williams: Flat and curved space-times. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1992; 2nd edition 2000
with Roy Maartens & Malcolm AH MacCallum : Relativistic Cosmology. Cambridge University Press 2012
with John Wainwright (Ed.): Dynamical systems in cosmology. Cambridge University Press 2005
Before the beginning. Cosmology explained. Bowerdean / Marion Boyars, 1993
with Antonio Lanza & John Miller: The Renaissance of General Relativity and Cosmology. Cambridge University Press. 1993
with Nancey Murphy: On The Moral Nature of the universe: Cosmology, Theology, and Ethics , Fortress Press, 1996
(Ed.): Far-Future Universe - The Eschatology from a Cosmic Perspective. Published in association with the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Templeton Foundation Press, 2002
with Peter Coles: Is the Universe Open or Closed? The Density of Matter in the Universe (= Cambridge Lecture Notes in Physics. Vol 7). Cambridge University Press, 1997
with Jeff Murugan & Amanda Weltmann (eds.): Foundations of Space and Time: Reflections on Quantum Gravity. Cambridge University Press, 2012
with Nancey Murphy & Timothy O'Connor (Eds.): Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will. Springer, 2009
with Malcolm AH MacCallum & Andrzej Krasinski (eds.): Golden Oldies in General Relativity. Hidden Gems. Springer, 2013

Essays and reviews:

with MAH MacCallum: A class of homogeneous cosmological models. In: Communications in Mathematical Physics. Volume 12, 1969, pp. 108-141
with Marco Bruni: Covariant and gauge-invariant approach to cosmological density fluctuations. In: Physical Review D. Volume 40, 1989, p. 1804
Relativistic cosmology. In: Rainer K. Sachs (Ed.): Proceedings of the International School of Physics “Enrico Fermi”, Course 47: General relativity and cosmology. Academic Press, 1971 ( PDF ( memento of February 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ))
with Henk van Elst: Cosmological Models (Cargese Summer School 1998). In: Marc Lachièze-Rey (Ed.): Theoretical and Observational Cosmology. Springer, 1999, ISBN 0792359453 , Arxiv
with BG Schmidt: Singular spacetimes. In: General Relativity and Gravitation. Volume 8, 1977, pp. 915-953
Topology and Cosmology. In: General Relativity and Gravitation. Volume 2, 1971, pp. 7-21
with Roy Maarten's The emergent universe: inflationary cosmology with no singularity. In: Classical and Quantum Gravity. Volume 21, 2004, p. 223, Arxiv

Web links

Prof. George Ellis, Senior Scholar and Emeritus. Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University of Cape Town; accessed on February 12, 2018
Video lecture on natural law and divine creation (English)
Templeton Prize to George Ellis. Interview. forum- Grenzfragen.de, August 7, 2004(English audio with a written German summary).; accessed on February 12, 2018
George Ellis Wins 2004 Templeton Prize. March 17, 2004(English).; accessed on February 12, 2018

Footnotes

↑ George Ellis: Piety in the sky ( Memento December 13, 2005 in the Internet Archive ). Review of Tipler's Physics of Immortality in Nature . Volume 371, 1994, p. 115 ( PDF ). The review begins with the words "This must be one of the most misleading books ever produced".

personal data
SURNAME	Ellis, George FR
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ellis, George Francis Rayner (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	South African mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH	August 11, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH	Johannesburg

[1] George Ellis: Piety in the sky ( Memento December 13, 2005 in the Internet Archive ). Review of Tipler's Physics of Immortality in Nature . Volume 371, 1994, p. 115 ( PDF ). The review begins with the words "This must be one of the most misleading books ever produced".