Remo Ruffini

Remo Ruffini (born May 17, 1942, [http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Brigue La Brigue] , France) is Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Rome "Sapienza", since 1978. He is President of the International Centre for Relativistic Astrophysics [http://www.icra.it (ICRA)] and initiated the International Relativistic Astrophysics Ph.D [http://www.icra.it/IRAPPhD/2007/Welcome.htm (IRAP)] , a common graduate school program of several universities and research institutes for the education of theoretical astrophysicists. In addition, he created an international network in which a number of states decided to collaborate in the field of astrophysics ( [http://www.icranet.org ICRANet] ).

Biography

After his degree in 1966, he was post-doctoral fellow at the Mainz Academy of Sciences working with Pasqual Jordan, in Germany. Then, he was member of the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton and later became instructor and assistant professor at Princeton University. In 1975, he was visiting Professor at the Universities of Kyoto (Japan) and of Western Australia, Perth. In the years 1975-78, he cooperated with NASA being member of the task force on the scientific use of space stations. In 1976 he became Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Catania and in 1978 he was appointed Professor at the University “Sapienza”. In 1985, he was elected President of the International Center for Relativistic Astrophysics (ICRA)In 1984 he was cofounder, with Abdus Salam, of the Marcel Grossmann Meetings. In 1987, he became co-chairman of the Italian-Korean Meetings on Relativistic Astrophysics. In the years 1989-93, he was President of the Scientific Committee of the Italian Space Agency. He is Editor of a variety of Scientific Journals. He is married to Anna Imponente and has a son, Iacopo.

His theoretical workled to the concept of Boson Stars [cite journal
title = Systems of Self-Gravitating Particles in General Relativity and the Concept of an Equation of State
author = R. Ruffini and S. Bonazzola
journal = Phys. Rev.
volume = 187
pages = 1767–1783
year = 1969
doi =
url = http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PR/v187/i5/p1767_1] . His classical article with John A. Wheeler [cite journal
title = Introducing the Black Hole
author = R. Ruffini and J.A. Wheeler
journal = Physics Today
pages = 30039
year = 1971] introduced for the first time the astrophysical concept of "Black Hole". With Demetrios Christodoulou he has established the reversible and irreversible transformations of a Black Hole and given the formula for a Kerr-Newmann Black Hole endowed of charge, mass and angular momentum [cite journal
title = Reversible Transformations of a Charged Black Hole
author = D. Christodoulou, R. Ruffini
journal = Phys. Rev. D
volume = 4
pages = 3552–3555
year = 1971
doi =
url = http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v4/i12/p3552_1] . His theoretical work led to the identification of the first Black Holes in our Galaxy.

Together with his student C. Rhoades [cite journal
title = Maximum Mass of a Neutron Star
author = C. Rhoades and R. Ruffini
journal = Phys. Rev. Lett
volume = 32
pages = 324
year = 1974
doi =
url = http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v33/i5/p324_1] , he established the absolute upper limit to the mass of neutron stars and, with his student Robert Leach [cite journal
title = On the Masses of X-Ray Sources
author = R. Leach and R. Ruffini
journal = Ap. J. Letters
volume = 180
pages = L–15
year = 1973
url = http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v33/i5/p324_1
doi = 10.1086/181143] , he used such an upper limit for fixing the paradigm which enabled the identification of the first Black Hole in our Galaxy, Cygnus X1, using the splendid data of the Uhuru satellite by Riccardo Giacconi and his group [cite journal
title = An Education in Astronomy
author = R. Giacconi
journal = Annual Review of Astronomy & Astrophysics
volume = 43
pages = 1–30
year = 2005
doi = 10.1146/annurev.astro.43.090303.091253] , [cite journal
title = Nobel Lecture: The dawn of x-ray astronomy
author = R. Giacconi
journal = Reviews of Modern Physics
volume = 75
pages = 995–1010
year = 2003
url = http://prola.aps.org/abstract/RMP/v75/i3/p995_1
doi = 10.1103/RevModPhys.75.995] .

For these works Ruffini won the Cressy Morrison Award of the N.Y. Academy of Science in 1972.

With his students Calzetti, Giavalisco, Song and Taraglio he has developed the role of fractal structures in Cosmology [cite journal
title = The normalization of the correlation functions for extragalactic structures
author = D. Calzetti, M. Giavalisco, R. Ruffini
journal = Astron. Astrophys.
volume = 198
year = 1988] , [cite journal
title = The 'ino' mass and the cellular large-scale structure of the universe
author = R. Ruffini, D.J. Song, S. Taraglio
journal = Astron. Astrophys.
volume = 190
year = 1988] .

Together with his collaborator T. Damour [cite journal
title = Quantum Electrodynamical Effects in Kerr-Newmann Geometries
author = T. Damour and R. Ruffini
journal = Phys. Rev. Lett
volume = 35
pages = 463
year = 1975
url = http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v35/i7/p463_1
doi = 10.1103/PhysRevLett.35.463] , he suggested the applicability of the Heisenberg-Euler-Schwinger process of pair creation in Black Hole physics and identified the dyadosphere where these processes take place. Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) seem to give the observational evidence of such pair creation process in astrophysics, prior to the observation of such phenomenon in Earth based experiments and represent the first evidence of the energy extraction process from Black Holes (the blackholic energy) [cite journal
title = Gamma Ray Bursts
author = R. Ruffini et al.
journal = Proceedings XI Marcel Grossmann Meeting, World Scientific, Singapore
year = 2008] .

Books

He is co-author of 21 books, including:
*R. Giacconi and R. Ruffini, eds. and co-authors "Physics and Astrophysics of Neutron Stars and Black Holes", LXXV E. Fermi Summer School, SIF and North Holland (1978), also translated into Russian.
*R. Gursky and R. Ruffini eds. and co-authors, "Neutron Stars, Black Holes and Binary X Ray Sources", H. Reidel (1975).
*H. Ohanian and R. Ruffini "Gravitation and Spacetime", W.W. Norton, N.Y. (1994) also Translated into Italian (Zanichelli, Bologna, 1997) and Korean (Shin Won, Seoul, 2001).
*R. Gursky-R. Ruffini Neutron Stars, Black Holes and Binary X Ray Sources, H. Reidel (1975)
*Bardeen-Carter-Gursky-Hawking-Novikov-Thorne-Ruffini Black holes, Ed. de Witt, Gordon and Breach, New York, 1973
*M. Rees-J.A. Wheeler-R. Ruffini Black Holes, Gravitational Waves and Cosmology, Gordon and Breach N.Y. 1974
*H. Sato-R. Ruffini Black Holes, Tokyo 1976
*L.Z. Fang-R. Ruffini Basic Concepts in Relativistic Astrophysics, Science Press, Beijing 1981
*F. Melchiorri-R. Ruffini Gamow Cosmology, North Holland Pub. Co., Amsterdam, 1986

Awards

*Cressy Morrison Award, from the New York Academy of Sciences (1972)
*Alfred P. Sloan Fellow Foundation (1974)
*Space Scientist of the Year (1992)

References

Links

* [http://www.icra.it/People/Ruffini.htm web page Remo Ruffini]
* [http://www.icra.it/Organization (Publications)]
* [http://www.icranet.org ICRANet]
* [http://www.icra.it/IRAPPhD/2007/Welcome.htm (IRAP)] .