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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 (
Degrees: B.Sc.(Hons) (Cape Town), B.Com.(Hons) (Cape Town); Ph.D. (Cantab).
Email: George.ellis_@_uct.ac.za
Google Scholar page: here
Past Positions:
Lecturer, DAMTP (
Professor of Cosmic Physics, SISSA
(
Visiting Professor:
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 (
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,
Honorary
Fellow, Royal Society of South Africa
(2008)
Honorary Degree,
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.
·
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 co-hosted a workshop
on the nature of quantum physics in October, 2011.
·
I am
giving the Copernicus Centre lecture in Krakow in May 2012, see http://causal-universe.philosophyinscience.com/programme.php
·
I am a speaker at the Turing Centenary Conference in Manchester in June 2012, see http://www.turing100.manchester.ac.uk/
·
With Huw Price (Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosphy,
Representative publications (books):
The
Large Scale Structure of Space Time (with Stephen Hawking):
Cambridge University Press, 1973 and reprints [> 7000 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 (review here).
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
Substance Use and Abuse in South Africa Insights from brain and behavioural sciences (Ed, with Kevin Thomas, Dan Stein, Ernesta Meintjes):
UCT Press, 2012
Foundations
of Space and Time: Reflections on Quantum Gravity (Ed., with Jeff Murugan and Amanda Weltmann):
Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Relativistic
Cosmology (with Malcolm MacCallum and Roy Maartens):
Cambridge
University Press, 2012.
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.
“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
“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 supernova observations in a lumpy universe” (with Jean-Philippe Uzan, Roy Maartens, Chris Clarkson, Andreas Faltenbacher, and Obinna Umh)
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/1109.2484
“Birkhoff Theorem and Matter” (with Rituparno Goswami) http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/1202.0240
On philosophy and cosmology:
“Issues in the Philosophy
of Cosmology” http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0602280.
“Editorial note to "Large number coincidences and the anthropic principle
in cosmology" http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/1105.2462
“On the philosophy of cosmology”: text of Granada (2011) talk
“Space time and the passage of time” for Springer Handbook of Spacetime
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 (
Science, technology and Humanity (for
STIAS New Humanism Project).
Representative publications (papers on
complexity/emergence):
Physics and the real world [full length Foundations of Physics article supporting shorter Nature version].
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).
On the nature of causation in complex systems (extended version of RSSA Centenary Transactions paper, 2008).
“Top down causation and emergence: some comments on mechanisms”
(talk at
“On the limits of quantum theory: contextuality and the classical/quantum 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)
Recognising Top-Down Causation (FQXI essay 2012)
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
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.
Other activities:
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..
