Pantur Silaban

Infobox Scientist
name = Pantur Silaban


caption = photograph "circa" 1970
birth_date = Birth date|1937|11|11|df=yes
birth_place = Sidikalang, Dairi Indonesia
death_date = -
death_place = -
residence = Sumatera (Sidikalang)
Syracuse (USA)
Bandung (Indonesia)
fields = Physics, theory of relativity, quantum theory
workplaces = 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 theoritcal physics. He is also one of the earliest physicists from ASEAN countries who studied Einstein's general relativity theories in depth.

Biography

Early years

Born in Sumatera to Israel Silaban and Regina br Lumbantoruan in Dairi village in Sumatera, Indonesia.

Middle Years

Silaban finished his bachelor degree in physics from Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia in 1966.

Later Years

In 1967, he went to United States to study General Relativity theory at "Central Studies of Gravitation" at Syracuse 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 The Journal of General Relativity and Gravitation.