Nationality United States Spouse Corinne Manogue | Role Mathematician Name Tevian Dray Doctoral advisor Rainer K. Sachs | |
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Born March 17, 1956 (age 68)
Washington, DC, United States ( 1956-03-17 ) Institutions Oregon State University Alma mater Massachusetts Institute of Technology BS 1976; University of California, Berkeley Ph.D 1981 Books The Geometry of Special Relativity, The Geometry of the Octonions Education University of California, Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology | ||
Residence United States of America | ||
Tevian dray octonions and fermions fqxi azores conference 2009
Tevian Dray (born March 17, 1956) is an American mathematician who has worked in general relativity, mathematical physics, geometry, and both science and mathematics education.
He has primarily worked in the area of classical general relativity. His research results include confirmation of the existence of solutions of Einstein's equation containing gravitational radiation, the use of computer algebra to classify exact solutions of Einstein's equation, an analysis of a class of gravitational shock waves (including one of the few known exact 2-body solutions in general relativity), and the study of signature change, a possible model for the Big Bang. More recently, his work has focused on applications of the octonions to the theory of fundamental particles.
He was a graduate student under Rainer K. Sachs at Berkeley, where he received his Ph.D. in 1981, although much of his dissertation research was done in collaboration with Abhay Ashtekar. The context of his dissertation, titled The Asymptotic Structure of a Family of Einstein-Maxwell Solutions focused on families of spacetimes which describe accelerating black holes, and which contain gravitational radiation. This demonstrated the existence of exact radiating solutions to the Einstein field equations.
He is currently a professor of mathematics at Oregon State University. In addition to his ongoing work in mathematical physics, he has made significant contributions in science education, where he directs the Vector Calculus Bridge Project, an attempt to teach vector calculus the way it is used by scientists and engineers, and is part of the development team of the Paradigms Project, a complete restructuring of the undergraduate physics major around several core "paradigms". He has written a book on special relativity and a sequel on general relativity using differential forms. , and is coauthor of a book on the octonions released in 2015.