George Ellis

Infobox_Scientist
name = George Ellis


caption = George F. R. Ellis
birth_date = Birth date and age|1939|8|11|mf=y
birth_place = Johannesburg, South Africa
residence =
nationality = n
field = Cosmology
work_institution = University of Cape Town; previously University of Cambridge and SISSA
alma_mater = Michaelhouse, Cape Town and Cambridge
doctoral_advisor = Dennis W. Sciama
doctoral_students = John M. Stewart
Malcolm A.H. MacCallum
Andrew R. King
Roy Maartens
Marco Bruni
Henk van Elst
Tim Gebbie
Jeffrey Murugan
Ulrich Kirchner
known_for = Theoretical physical cosmology
prizes = Templeton Prize 2004
religion = Quaker

George F. R. Ellis, FRS, (born August 11, 1939) is the 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. He is an active Quaker and in 2004 he won the Templeton Prize [ [http://www.templetonprize.org/news_templetonprize_2004.html Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities ] ] . From 1989 to 1992 he served as President of the [http://grg.maths.qmul.ac.uk/grgsoc/ International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation] . Currently he is President of the International Society for Science and Religion.

Ellis was a vocal opponent of apartheid during the National Party reign in the 1970s and 1980s, and it is during this period that Ellis' research has focused on the more philosophical aspects of cosmology, for which he won the Templeton Prize. He was also awarded the Star of South Africa (Decoration) by Nelson Mandela, in 1999. On May 18, 2007, he was elected a Fellow of the British Royal Society.

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

Ideas

George Ellis proposed a model universe that contains a naked singularity as a recycling mechanism, which he claims gives almost as good a description of the real universe as the conventional model.

The Ellis universe is like a cylinder-shaped universe, except that the Earth is located on one side and a naked singularity on the other. There is no cosmic inflation – the galaxies are arranged very unevenly, with a great deal of material crowded round the singularity, and very little near the Earth. The effect of such a distribution of matter is to produce a red shift of light that, at the Earth, has the same characteristics as if the galaxies were receding.

In terms of philosophy of science, Ellis is a Platonist.

Publications

Books

*(with Stephen Hawking): cite book | author=Hawking, S.W.; Ellis, G.F.R. | title=The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time | location=Cambridge | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1973 | id=ISBN 0-521-20016-4
* (with David Dewar): "Low Income Housing Policy in South Africa", Urban Problems Research Unit, UCT, 1979.
* (with Ruth Williams): "Flat and Curved Space Times", Oxford University Press, 1988, revised 2000.
* "Before the Beginning", Bowerdean/Marion Boyars, 1993.
* (with A Lanza and J Miller): "The Renaissance of General Relativity and Cosmology". University Press, Cambridge 1993; paperback, 2005.
* "Science Research Policy in South Africa", Royal Society of South Africa, 1994.
* (with Nancey Murphy): "On The Moral Nature of the universe: Cosmology, Theology, and Ethics". Fortress Press, 1996.
* (with John Wainwright, Eds.): cite book | editor=Wainwright, J.; Ellis, G.F.R. | title=Dynamical Systems in Cosmology | location=Cambridge | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1997 | id=ISBN 0-521-55457-8
* (with Peter Coles): "Is The Universe Open or Closed? The Density of Matter in the Universe". Cambridge University Press, 1997.
* (Ed.): "The Far Future Universe". Templeton Foundation Press, 2002.

Papers

Ellis has over 500 published articles [ see [http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&sa=G&oi=qs&q=%22george+ellis%22+author:g-ellis Google Scholar] ] including 17 in Nature. Notable papers include:
* "Cosmological perturbations and the physical meaning of gauge-invariant variables" (with Marco Bruni, Peter K. S. Dunsby) The Astrophysical Journal, volume 395 (1992)
* " [http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v62/i8/e084003 Schwarzschild black hole lensing] " (with K. S. Virbhadra) [Phys. Rev. D 62084003, (2000)
* " [http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9812046 arXiv:gr-qc/9812046v5 Cosmological models] " (Cargèse Lectures 1998) (with Henk van Elst)
* "The case for an open Universe" in Nature 370, 609–615 (25 August 1994)
* " [http://www.mth.uct.ac.za/~ellis/nature.pdf Physics, complexity and causality] " in Nature 435, p.743 (9 June 2005)

Notes and references

See also

*List of science and religion scholars

External links

* [http://www.mth.uct.ac.za/~ellis/ George Ellis' web page]
* [http://www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=342&fArticleId=377827 Professor George Ellis: a man of many parts] , Cape Argus, March 18, 2004
* [http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?AUTHOR=G+F+R+Ellis&TITLE=&C=&REPORT-NUM=&AFFILIATION=&cn=&k=&cc=&eprint=&eprint=&topcit=&url=&J=&*=&ps=&DATE=&*=&FORMAT=WWW&SEQUENCE= George Ellis' scientific work as listed at SPIRES]
* [http://philosophytalk.org/pastShows/ScienceandReligion.htm Radio interview] on Philosophy Talk
* [http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/scienceandhope/index.shtml Interview with George Ellis (Recorded June 2004)] on [http://www.speakingoffaith.org Speaking of Faith] with Krista TippettSee also the transcript of the above radio interview ...
* http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/scienceandhope/transcript.shtml

Persondata
NAME= Ellis, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= South African Cosmologist
DATE OF BIRTH= August 11, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH= Johannesburg, South Africa
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=