Nationality American | Role Physicist Name Ezra Newman | |
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Born October 17, 1929 (age 94) Bronx, New York ( 1929-10-17 ) Alma mater The Bronx H.S. of Science, 1947New York University, B.A. 1951Syracuse University, Ph.D. 1956 Education The Bronx High School of Science, New York University, Syracuse University | ||
Ezra T. Newman | Wikipedia audio article
Ezra Theodore Newman (born October 17, 1929) is an American physicist, known for his many contributions to general relativity theory. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh. Newman was awarded the 2011 Einstein Prize from the American Physical Society:
Contents
- Ezra T Newman Wikipedia audio article
- Education
- Career in physics
- Family
- Selected publications
- References
For outstanding contributions to theoretical relativity, including the Newman–Penrose formalism, Kerr–Newman solution, Heaven, and null foliation theory. For his intellectual passion, generosity and honesty, which have inspired and represented a model for generations of relativists.
Education
Newman was born in the Bronx, New York City to David and Fannie (Slutsky) Newman. He showed an early interest in science, pondering magnets, match flames, and science books.
He was admitted to the Bronx High School of Science, where he excelled at physics. Ted's father hoped that he would follow him into dentistry, but instead Ted enrolled at New York University to further his study of physics, graduating with a B.A. in 1951. For graduate education he went to Syracuse University, obtaining an M.A. in 1955 and a Ph.D. the following year.
Career in physics
Newman joined the University of Pittsburgh faculty in 1956, becoming professor of physics in 1966. He was a visiting professor at Syracuse University in 1960/61 and at Kings College, University of London in 1964/65. In 1957 he served as consultant at Wright–Patterson Air Force Base.
Newman was a prominent contributor to the golden age of general relativity (roughly 1960-1975). In 1962, together with Roger Penrose, he introduced the powerful Newman–Penrose formalism for working with spinorial quantities in general relativity. In 1963, Newman and two coworkers discovered the NUT vacuum, an exact vacuum solution to the Einstein field equation which has become a famous "counterexample to everything". In 1965, he discovered the Kerr–Newman electrovacuum, one of the best known of all exact solutions. Some of his most interesting recent work has involved the problem of reconstructing the gravitational field within some region from observations of how optical images are lensed as light rays pass through the region. An email he forwarded to John C. Baez help to touch off the Bogdanov Affair.
Family
Newman married Sally Faskow on April 20, 1958.
His son, David E. Newman, is currently a Professor of Physics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and his daughter, Dara Newman, is currently Parent Education Director at Families First Missoula following a career in quantitative genetics and conservation biology.