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George F. R. Ellis
Professor of Applied Mathematics,
Professor Emeritus, Mathematics Department, University of Cape Town, Cape Town.
G C McVittie
Visiting Professor of Astronomy, Queen
Mary (London University)
Degrees: B.Sc.(Hons) (Cape Town), B.Com.(Hons) (Cape
Town); Ph.D. (Cantab).
Email: George.ellis_@_uct.ac.za
Past Positions:
Lecturer, DAMTP
(Cambridge)
Professor of Cosmic Physics, SISSA
(Trieste)
Visiting Professor: Texas University, University of Chicago, Hamburg
University, Boston University, University of Alberta, London University.
Honours/Positions:
National Research
Foundation (NRF) A-rating.
Fellow and Past
President of the Royal Society of South
Africa (RSSA).
Founder Member and
past Member of Council of Academy of Science
of South Africa (ASSAf).
Past President of
the International Society for
General Relativity and Gravitation.
Fellow of the University of Cape Town.
Honorary Degrees: Haverford College,
Natal University, London University (Queen Mary).
Herschel Medal (RSSA), Achievement
Award (Claude Harris Leon Foundation),
Gold Medal: South African Association for the Advancement of Science
(S2A3),
Gold Medal (S A Mathematical
Society).
Member of the
drafting team of the DACST
Green Paper on Science and Technology after President Mandela’s election, which
lead to the White
Paper.
Past Member of the InterAcademy
Council (Amsterdam), (2001-2005).
Joint Editor in Chief of the International
Journal of General Relativity and Gravitation (from January 2006). Please
see here a nice paper on reviewing.
Star of
South Africa Medal presented by President Nelson Mandela
(1999).
2004 Templeton Prize winner (presented
by Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace).
Fellow of the Third World Academy of Science (TWAS), 2004.
NSTF 2004 award for an individual
contribution to Science and Technology over a lifetime.
Academy of Science
of South Africa Science-for-Society gold medal
(2005).
Order of Mapungubwe (Silver) conferred by President Thabo Mbeki
(2006).
FRS
(Fellow of the Royal Society, London):
inducted July 2007.
Honorary
Fellow, Royal Society of South Africa
(2008)
Honorary Degree, University of
Cape Town (December, 2009) [citation]
South African Institute of Physics De Beers Gold Medal (September 2010)
Teaching and research interests:
- General Relativity theory and its
application to the study of the large-scale structure of the universe
(cosmology).
- The history and philosophy of cosmology.
- Complex systems and emergence of
complexity.
- The human brain and behaviour.
- Science policy, developmental issues.
- Science and mathematics education.
- The relation of science to religion
- The nature of quantum physics
I was coorganiser
of a conference
in Cape Town on Quantum Gravity and a conference in
Oxford on the philosophy of cosmology in 2009
I am co-hosting a workshop on the nature of quantum
physics in October, 2011
Representative publications (books):
The Large Scale Structure
of Space Time (with Stephen Hawking):
Cambridge University Press, 1973 and reprints [4906 citations]; Russian and Chinese editions.
Low
Income Housing Policy in South Africa, (with David Dewar):
Urban Problems Research Unit, UCT, 1979.
Flat and Curved Space Times, (with Ruth Williams):
Oxford University Press, 1988, revised 2nd
edition 2000.
Bowerdean/Marion Boyars, 1993.
The
Renaissance of General Relativity and Cosmology, (with A Lanza and J
Miller): University Press, Cambridge 1993; paperback, 2005.
Science Research Policy in
South Africa,
Royal Society of S Africa, 1994.
On The
Moral Nature of the universe: Cosmology, Theology, and Ethics, (with Nancey
Murphy): Fortress Press, 1996; Russian and Chinese editions.
Dynamical systems in cosmology, (with John Wainwright, Eds.):
Cambridge University Press, 1996;
paperback, 2005.
Is The Universe Open or
Closed? The Density of Matter in the Universe, (with Peter Coles): Cambridge University
Press, 1997.
The
Far Future Universe, (Ed.):
Templeton Foundation Press, 2002.
Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will (Ed., with Nancey Murphy and Timothy O’Connor). Springer: New York, 2009
Foundations
of Space and Time: Reflections on Quantum Gravity (Ed., with Jeff Murugan and Amanda Weltmann):
Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Relativistic
Cosmology (with Malcolm MacCallum and Roy Maartens):
Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Representative publications (papers on
cosmology/relativity):
“Cosmological Models” (with Henk van Elst):, Cargese lectures 1998.
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9812046.
“Cosmic microwave background anisotropies: Nonlinear dynamics” (with Roy
Maartens and Tim Gebbie):,
Phys.Rev. D59 (1999) 083506. http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9808163.
“On Holography and Cosmology” (with Reza Tavakol):
Phys.Lett. B469 (1999) 37. http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9908093
.
“83 years of general relativity and cosmology: progress and problems”.
Class.
Quantum Grav. 16 (December 1999) A37-A75.
“Cosmology and Local Physics”, Int.J.Mod.Phys.
A17 (2002) 2667-2672.
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0102017
.
“`c' is the speed of light, isn't it?”
(with Jean Phillipe Uzan):
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0305099
.
“The past attractor in inhomogeneous
cosmology” (with Claes Uggla,
Henk van Elst, John
Wainwright): http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0304002
.
“WMAP data and the curvature of space.” (with Jean Phillipe Uzan and Uli Kirchner):
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0302597
.
“On the Stability of the Einstein Static Universe”
(with John D Barrow, Roy Maartens, and Christos Tsagas):, Class.Quant.Grav.
20 (2003) L155-L164.
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0302094
.
“The Emergent Universe:
inflationary cosmology with no singularity” (with Roy Maartens): http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0211082
.
“The Emergent Universe: An
Explicit Construction” (with Jeff Murugan and Christos G. Tsagas): http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0307112 .
“Multiverses and physical
cosmology” (with Uli Kirchner and Bill Stoeger):.
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0305292
.
“An emergent universe from a loop”
(with David Mulryne, Reza Tavakol,
James E. Lidsey). http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0502589.
“The universe seen at different scales” (with Thomas Buchert):
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0506106.
"Issues in the Philosophy of Cosmology”.
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0602280.
“Physics in the real universe: time and spacetime”.
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0605049
.
“Causality
and the speed of sound” (with Roy Maartens and Malcolm MacCallum):. http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0703121.
“Time drift of cosmological redshifts as a test of the Copernican
principle” (with Jean-Philippe Uzan and
Chris Clarkson): http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/0801.0068.
“A
note on infinities in eternal inflation” (with Bill Stoeger).
General Relativity and Gravitation, Volume 41: 1475-1484 (2009)
“Dark matter and dark energy proposals:
maintaining cosmology as a true science?” Paper for CRAL-IPNL conference
"Dark Energy and Dark Matter",
2008.
“The
evolution of our local cosmic domain” (with Bill Stoeger).
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
398: 1527-1536 (2009)
“Relativistic
cosmology”: Golden Oldie reprint of Varenna
Lectures 1971:
General Relativity and Gravitation, Volume 41: 581 (2009)
“Time and Spacetime: The Crystallizing Block
Universe” (with T Rothman):
Int. J. Theor. Phys., vol. 49, 988 (2010) http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/0912.0808.
“A two-mass expanding
exact space-time solution” (with
Jean-Philippe Uzan and Julien Larena):
GRG 43, 191 (2010) http://uk.arxiv.org/abs/1005.1809
“On the Trace-Free Einstein
Equations as a Viable Alternative to General Relativity” (with Jeff Murugan
and Henk van Elst):
http://uk.arxiv.org/abs/1008.1196.
“Almost
Birkhoff Theorem in General Relativity” (with
Rituparno
Goswami) http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/1101.4520
“Editorial note to "Large number coincidences and the anthropic principle
in cosmology" http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/1105.2462
“On Shear-Free perturbations of FLRW
Universes” (with Anne Marie
Nzioki, Rituparno
Goswami, and Peter Dunsby)
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/1107.5410
“Does the
growth of structure affect our dynamical models of the universe? The averaging,
backreaction and fitting problems in cosmology” (with Chris
Clarkson,
Julien Larena, and Obinna Umeh):
Reports on Progress in Physics http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/1109.2314
“Interpreting supernovae observations in a lumpy universe” (with Chris Clarkson, George EllisAndreas Faltenbacher
, Roy Maartens, Obinna Umeh, and Jean-Philippe Uzan): http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/1109.2484
Representative publications (papers
on education/developmental issues):
A view on
the school maths syllabus. (CASME talk, 1995).
The
Development of Quantitative Social Indicators. (Notes 2001).
South
African Developmental Issues. SAIRR (Western Cape), 2001.
Science, technology and Humanity (for
STIAS New Humanism Project).
Representative publications (papers
on complexity/emergence/top down causation):.
“Physics and the real world” [full length Foundations of Physics article supporting shorter Nature version].
“On the nature of causation in complex systems” (extended version of RSSA Centenary Transactions paper, 2008).
“Top-Down Causation by
Information Control: From a Philosophical Problem to a Scientific Research Program”
(with Gennaro Auletta and Luc Jaeger): Journal of the Royal Society Interface
5:1159-1172 (2008).
“Top down causation and emergence: some comments on mechanisms”
(Talk at London meeting)
“On the limits of quantum theory: contextuality and the quantum-classical cut” http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/1108.5261
“The arrow
of time, the nature of spacetime, and quantum
measurement”
(Response to FQXI Meeting)
“True complexity and its associated ontology” (Talk at John Wheeler birthday meeting)
Representative publications (papers
on the brain and language):
Neural Development: Affective and Immune
System Influences. (with Judith Toronchuk): In Consciousness and Emotion: Agency,
Conscious Choice, and Selective Perception Ed R D. Ellis and N Newton (John
Benjamins, 2005), 81–119.
Disgust: Sensory Affect or Primary Emotional System? (with Judith Toronchuk):
Cognition & Emotion, 21 (2007), 1799 – 1818.
Affective
Neuronal Darwinism: The Nature of the Primary Emotional Systems. (with Judith Toronchuk).
Commentary on “An Evolutionarily Informed Education Science” by
David C Geary. Educational Psychologist 43 (4), 206-213 (2008).
Language Infinities. (with Bill Stoeger:
unpublished).
Biology
and mechanisms related to the dawn of language. To appear in proceedings of Homo
Symbolicus meeting.
Comment
on “Taking emergence seriously: The centrality of circular causality for dynamic
systems approaches to development” by David Witherington
(with Carole Bloch)
Salience Affected
Neural Networks (with Leendert Remmelzwaal and Jonathan Tapson)
The myth of
a purely rational life (Theology and Science 5:87-100, 2007)
For a beautiful description of how
reading and writing is really learnt by young children, here is Chloe’s story by
Carole Bloch.
Web Notes:
1: The Universe Around Us: An
Integrative View of Science and Cosmology.
2:
Course on General
relativity.
I am past chairperson of Quaker Service
(Cape), and am on the board of the Association
for Educational Transformation (ASSET).
ELRU, Philani, and The
Little Hands Trust are other inspiring local organisations
(I was on the Boards of ELRU and Philani for many
years). I am an avid
fan and supporter of the Pro Cantu Youth
Choir. I am an amateur photographer on my mountain walks; the
photos below are from an exhibition I held in 1999. And here is our joint
lamentation about the destruction of shade trees in Cape Town (walking in the
shaded forest in Cape Town has been a privilege I have enjoyed for 50 years,
now a thing of the past: they have been destroyed by fynbos
fundamentalists). If you agree, email about it as suggested here.
Finally, for those interested in my
views on science and religion, here is a paper I
wrote on the Quakers a long while ago, and here is
my Backhouse Lecture to the Australia Yearly Meeting of the Quakers; and here is a paper
on fundamentalism in science and religion..
