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{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}
{{Infobox scientist
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS}}
| name = Dennis Sciama
| name = Dennis Sciama
| image =Sciama2.jpg|200px
| image =Sciama2.jpg
| image_size = 200px
| image_size = 200px
| caption = Dennis William Siahou Sciama (1926–1999)
| caption = Dennis William Siahou Sciama (1926–1999)
Line 16: Line 17:
| work_institution = [[University of Oxford]] <br /> [[University of Cambridge]] <br /> [[Cornell University]] <br /> [[Harvard University]] <br /> [[King's College London]]<br /> [[University of Texas at Austin]] <br />[[Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati]]
| work_institution = [[University of Oxford]] <br /> [[University of Cambridge]] <br /> [[Cornell University]] <br /> [[Harvard University]] <br /> [[King's College London]]<br /> [[University of Texas at Austin]] <br />[[Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati]]
| alma_mater = [[University of Cambridge]]
| alma_mater = [[University of Cambridge]]
| doctoral_advisor = [[Paul Dirac]]
| doctoral_advisor = [[Paul Dirac]]<ref name=mathgene/>
| doctoral_students = {{Plainlist|
| doctoral_students = [[John D. Barrow]]<br />[[James Binney]]<br />[[Adrian Melott]]<br /> [[George Francis Rayner Ellis|George Ellis]]<br />[[Gary Gibbons]]<br /> [[Stephen Hawking]]<br />[[Martin Rees]]<br />[[David Deutsch]]<br />[[Antony Valentini]]<br />[[Brandon Carter]]<br />[[Tim Palmer (physicist)|Tim Palmer]]<br />[[Philip Candelas]]
⚫
* [[John D. Barrow]]<ref name=mathgene>{{MathGenealogy|id=72653|title=Dennis Sciama}}</ref>
⚫
| known_for = [[Astrophysics]] and [[physical cosmology|cosmology]]
⚫
* [[James Binney]]<ref name=mathgene/>
* [[Philip Candelas]]<ref name=mathgene/>
⚫
* [[Brandon Carter]]<ref name=mathgene/>
* [[David Deutsch]]{{when}}<ref name=mathgene/>
⚫
* [[George Francis Rayner Ellis|George Ellis]]<ref name=mathgene/>
⚫
* [[Gary Gibbons]]<ref name=mathgene/>
* [[Stephen Hawking]]<ref name=mathgene/><ref name=hawkingphd>{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |first=Stephen William |last=Hawking |title=Properties of Expanding Universes |publisher=University of Cambridge |year=1966 |url=http://schema.lib.cam.ac.uk/PR-PHD-05437_CUDL2017-reduced.pdf |authorlink=Stephen Hawking |OCLC=62793673|doi=10.17863/CAM.11283}}</ref>
⚫
* [[Adrian Melott]]<ref name=mathgene/>
* [[Martin Rees]]<ref name=mathgene/><ref name="reesphd">{{cite thesis|degree=PhD|first=Martin|last=Rees|title=Physical Processes in Radio Sources and the Intergalactic Medium|publisher=University of Cambridge|date=1967|url=http://copac.jisc.ac.uk/id/6118741?style=html|authorlink=Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow}}</ref>
* [[Antony Valentini]]<ref name=mathgene/>
* [[Tim Palmer (physicist)|Tim Palmer]]{{fact}}}}
⚫
| known_for = [[Astrophysics]]<br>[[physical cosmology|cosmology]]
| prizes = [[Faraday Medal]] (1991)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iop.org/activity/awards/Gold_medals/The_Faraday_Medal_of_the_Institute_of_Physics/Guthrie_medal_recipients/page_10206.html |title=Institute of Physics awards |publisher=Iop.org |date=21 February 2012 |accessdate=2012-02-28}}</ref>
| prizes = [[Faraday Medal]] (1991)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iop.org/activity/awards/Gold_medals/The_Faraday_Medal_of_the_Institute_of_Physics/Guthrie_medal_recipients/page_10206.html |title=Institute of Physics awards |publisher=Iop.org |date=21 February 2012 |accessdate=2012-02-28}}</ref>
[[Guthrie Medal and Prize]] (1991)
[[Guthrie Medal and Prize]] (1991)
| religion = [[Jewish]]
| footnotes =
| footnotes =
|spouse=Lidia Dina (1959–1999; his death; 2 children)
|spouse=Lidia Dina (1959–1999; his death; 2 children)
}}
}}


'''Dennis William Siahou Sciama''', [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]] ({{IPAc-en|ʃ|i|ˈ|æ|m|ə}}; 18 November 1926 – 18/19 December 1999)<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Ellis | first1 = George F. R. | authorlink1 = George F. R. Ellis| last2 = Penrose | first2 = Roger| authorlink2 = Roger Penrose| doi = 10.1098/rsbm.2009.0023 | title = [[Dennis William Sciama]]. 18 November 1926 -- 19 December 1999 | journal = [[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]] | volume = 56 | pages = 401 | year = 2010 | pmid = | pmc = }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Ellis | first1 = George F. R.| authorlink = George F. R. Ellis| title = Dennis Sciama (1926–99) | journal = Nature | volume = 403 | issue = 6771 | pages = 722 | year = 2000 | doi = 10.1038/35001716 | pmid = 10693790| pmc = |bibcode = 2000Natur.403..722E }}</ref> was a British [[physicist]] who, through his own work and that of his students, played a major role in developing British physics after the Second World War. He is considered one of the fathers of modern [[cosmology]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://physicsworldarchive.iop.org/index.cfm?action=summary&doc=13%2F2%2Fphwv13i2a13%40pwa-xml&qt= |title=PhysicsWorld Archive » Volume 13 » Obituary: Dennis Sciama 1926–1999 |publisher=Physicsworldarchive.iop.org |date= |accessdate=2012-02-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.amphilsoc.org/sites/default/files/311.pdf |title=PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY VOL. 145, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2001 |format=PDF |date= |accessdate=2012-02-28}}</ref>
'''Dennis William Siahou Sciama''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS}} ({{IPAc-en|ʃ|i|ˈ|æ|m|ə}}; 18 November 1926 – 18/19 December 1999)<ref name=rsbm>{{Cite journal | last1 = Ellis | first1 = George F. R. | authorlink1 = George F. R. Ellis| last2 = Penrose | first2 = Roger| authorlink2 = Roger Penrose| doi = 10.1098/rsbm.2009.0023 | title = [[Dennis William Sciama]]. 18 November 1926 -- 19 December 1999 | journal = [[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]] | volume = 56 | pages = 401 | year = 2010 | pmid = | pmc = }} {{open access}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Ellis | first1 = George F. R.| authorlink = George F. R. Ellis| title = Dennis Sciama (1926–99) | journal = Nature | volume = 403 | issue = 6771 | pages = 722 | year = 2000 | doi = 10.1038/35001716 | pmid = 10693790| pmc = |bibcode = 2000Natur.403..722E }}</ref> was a British [[physicist]] who, through his own work and that of his students, played a major role in developing British physics after the Second World War.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://physicsworldarchive.iop.org/index.cfm?action=summary&doc=13%2F2%2Fphwv13i2a13%40pwa-xml&qt= |title=PhysicsWorld Archive » Volume 13 » Obituary: Dennis Sciama 1926–1999 |publisher=Physicsworldarchive.iop.org |date= |accessdate=2012-02-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.amphilsoc.org/sites/default/files/311.pdf |title=PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY VOL. 145, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2001 |format=PDF |date= |accessdate=2012-02-28}}</ref> He is considered one of the fathers of modern [[cosmology]].<ref>''The Renaissance of General Relativity and Cosmology'', eds. G. F. R. Ellis et al., Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993. (Contains a Sciama Festschrift with Sciama's complete scientific genealogy). {{ISBN missing}}</ref><ref>[http://www.sissa.it/ap/activity/sciama.php Short biography] (source for much of this entry)</ref><ref>[https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/33994 Oral History interview transcript with Dennis W. Sciama 25 January 1989], [[American Institute of Physics]], Niels Bohr Library and Archives</ref><ref>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/73/101073574/ Sciama, Dennis William (1926–1999), cosmologist]. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. {{doi|10.1093/ref:odnb/73574}}</ref>


== Life and career ==
== Education and early life==
Sciama was born in [[Manchester]], [[England]], the son of Nelly Ades and Abraham Sciama.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=4XNtwLEbl7wC&q=Abraham+Sciama+Nelly+Ades&dq=Abraham+Sciama+Nelly+Ades&hl=en&sa=X&ei=U6R_VIvdGZL3yQSHq4HYBw&ved=0CBUQ6AEwAA ''The International Who's Who, 1997-98'']</ref> He was of [[Syrian Jews|Syrian Jewish]] ancestry—his father born in [[Manchester]] and his mother born in Egypt both traced their roots back to [[Aleppo]], Syria.<ref>{{cite book
Sciama was born in [[Manchester]], [[England]], the son of Nelly Ades and Abraham Sciama.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=4XNtwLEbl7wC&q=Abraham+Sciama+Nelly+Ades&dq=Abraham+Sciama+Nelly+Ades&hl=en&sa=X&ei=U6R_VIvdGZL3yQSHq4HYBw&ved=0CBUQ6AEwAA ''The International Who's Who, 1997-98'']</ref> He was of [[Syrian Jews|Syrian Jewish]] ancestry—his father born in [[Manchester]] and his mother born in Egypt both traced their roots back to [[Aleppo]], Syria.<ref>{{cite book
|author=Helge Kragh
|author=Helge Kragh
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}}</ref>
}}</ref>


Sciama earned his PhD in 1953 at [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]] under the supervision of [[Paul Dirac]], with a dissertation on [[Mach's principle]] and [[inertia]]. His work later influenced the formulation of scalar-tensor theories of gravity.
Sciama earned his PhD in 1953 at the [[University of Cambridge]] supervised by [[Paul Dirac]],<ref name=mathgene/> with a dissertation on [[Mach's principle]] and [[inertia]]. His work later influenced the formulation of scalar-tensor theories of gravity.


==Career and research==
He taught at [[Cornell University|Cornell]], [[King's College London]], [[Harvard University|Harvard]] and the [[University of Texas at Austin]], but spent most of his career at [[Cambridge University|Cambridge]] (1950s and 1960s) and the [[University of Oxford]] as a Senior Research Fellow of [[All Souls College, Oxford|All Souls College]] (1970s and early 1980s). In 1983, he moved from Oxford to [[Trieste]], becoming Professor of Astrophysics at the International School of Advanced Studies ([[SISSA]]), and a consultant with the [[International Centre for Theoretical Physics]].
Sciama taught at [[Cornell University]], [[King's College London]], [[Harvard University]] and the [[University of Texas at Austin]], but spent most of his career at the [[University of Cambridge]] (1950s and 1960s) and the [[University of Oxford]] as a Senior [[Research Fellow]] of [[All Souls College, Oxford]] (1970s and early 1980s). In 1983, he moved from Oxford to [[Trieste]], becoming Professor of Astrophysics at the International School of Advanced Studies ([[SISSA]]), and a consultant with the [[International Centre for Theoretical Physics]].


During the 1990s, he divided his time between Trieste (and a residence in nearby [[Venice]]) and [[Oxford]], where he was a visiting professor until the end of his life. His main home remained in his house in [[Park Town, Oxford]].
During the 1990s, he divided his time between Trieste (and a residence in nearby [[Venice]]) and [[Oxford]], where he was a visiting professor until the end of his life. His main home remained in his house in [[Park Town, Oxford]].
Line 51: Line 64:
During his last years, Sciama became interested in the issue of Dark Matter in galaxies. Among other aspects he pursued a theory of dark matter that consists of a heavy neutrino, certainly disfavored in his realization, but still possible in a more complicated scenario.
During his last years, Sciama became interested in the issue of Dark Matter in galaxies. Among other aspects he pursued a theory of dark matter that consists of a heavy neutrino, certainly disfavored in his realization, but still possible in a more complicated scenario.


===Doctoral students===
A number of the leading [[astrophysics|astrophysicists]] and [[physical cosmology|cosmologists]] of the modern era completed their doctorates under Sciama's supervision, notably:
Several leading [[astrophysics|astrophysicists]] and [[physical cosmology|cosmologists]] of the modern era completed their doctorates under Sciama's supervision, notably:
⚫
*[[George Francis Rayner Ellis|George Ellis]] (1964)
{{colbegin||35em}}
*[[Stephen Hawking]] (1966)
*[[George Francis Rayner Ellis|George Ellis]] (1964)<ref name=mathgene/>
⚫
*[[Brandon Carter]] (1967)
*[[Stephen Hawking]] (1966)<ref name=hawkingphd/><ref name=mathgene/>
*[[Martin Rees]] (1967)
*[[Brandon Carter]] (1967)<ref name=mathgene/>
⚫
*[[Gary Gibbons]] (1973)
*[[Martin Rees]] (1967)<ref name=mathgene/><ref name=reesphd/>
⚫
*[[James Binney]] (1975)
*[[Gary Gibbons]] (1973)<ref name=mathgene/>
⚫
*[[John D. Barrow]] (1977)
*[[James Binney]] (1975)<ref name=mathgene/>
⚫
*[[David Deutsch]]
⚫
*[[John D. Barrow]] (1977)<ref name=mathgene/>
⚫
*[[Adrian Melott]] (1981)
⚫
*[[David Deutsch]]<ref name=mathgene/>
*[[Paolo Molaro]] (1987)
*[[Adrian Melott]] (1981)<ref name=mathgene/>
*[[Paolo Salucci]] (1989)
*[[Antony Valentini]] (1992)
*[[Antony Valentini]] (1992)<ref name=mathgene/>
{{colend}}

Sciama also strongly influenced [[Roger Penrose]], who dedicated his ''[[The Road to Reality]]'' to Sciama's memory. The 1960s group he led in Cambridge (which included Ellis, Hawking, Rees, and Carter), has proved of lasting influence.
Sciama also strongly influenced [[Roger Penrose]], who dedicated his ''[[The Road to Reality]]'' to Sciama's memory. The 1960s group he led in Cambridge (which included Ellis, Hawking, Rees, and Carter), has proved of lasting influence.


=== Publications ===
⚫
Sciama was elected a Fellow of the [[Royal Society]] in 1982. He was also an honorary member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]], the [[American Philosophical Society]] and the Academia Lincei of Rome. He served as president of the International Society of General Relativity and Gravitation, 1980–84.
⚫
* 1959. ''The Unity of the Universe''. Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday.{{ISBN missing}}
⚫
* 1969. ''The Physical Foundations of General Relativity''. New York: Doubleday. Science Study Series. Short (104 pages) and clearly written non-mathematical book on the physical and conceptual foundations of General Relativity. Could be read with profit by physics students before immersing themselves in more technical studies of General Relativity.{{ISBN missing}}
⚫
* 1971. ''Modern Cosmology''. [[Cambridge University Press]].{{ISBN missing}}
⚫
* 1993. [https://books.google.com/books/about/Modern_Cosmology_and_the_Dark_Matter_Pro.html?id=7dTOlXBLiFQC ''Modern Cosmology and the Dark Matter Problem'']. Cambridge University Press.{{ISBN missing}}


===Awards and honours===
⚫
In 1959, Sciama married Lidia Dina, a social anthropologist, who survived him, along with their two daughters.
⚫
Sciama was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] (FRS) in 1983.<ref name=rsbm/> He was also an honorary member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]], the [[American Philosophical Society]] and the Academia Lincei of Rome. He served as president of the International Society of General Relativity and Gravitation, 1980–84.


His work at SISSA and the University of Oxford led to the creation of a lecture series in his honour, the [[Dennis Sciama Memorial Lectures]].<ref>[http://www.sissa.it/ap/sciama/memorial_sciama.html Dennis Sciama Memorial Lectures], [[SISSA]], Italy.</ref> In 2009, the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the [[University of Portsmouth]] elected to name their new building, and their supercomputer in 2011, in his honour.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.port.ac.uk/aboutus/contact/universitybuildings/buildingname,92568,en.html |title=University Buildings &#124; Contact and maps &#124; University of Portsmouth |publisher=Port.ac.uk |date= |accessdate=2012-02-28}}</ref>
His work at SISSA and the University of Oxford led to the creation of a lecture series in his honour, the [[Dennis Sciama Memorial Lectures]].<ref>[http://www.sissa.it/ap/sciama/memorial_sciama.html Dennis Sciama Memorial Lectures], [[SISSA]], Italy.</ref> In 2009, the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the [[University of Portsmouth]] elected to name their new building, and their supercomputer in 2011, in his honour.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.port.ac.uk/aboutus/contact/universitybuildings/buildingname,92568,en.html |title=University Buildings &#124; Contact and maps &#124; University of Portsmouth |publisher=Port.ac.uk |date= |accessdate=2012-02-28}}</ref>


Sciama has been portrayed in a number of biographical projects about his most famous student, Stephen Hawking. In the 2004 BBC TV movie ''[[Hawking (2004 film)|Hawking]]'', Sciama was played by [[John Sessions]]. In the 2014 film ''[[The Theory of Everything (2014 film)|The Theory of Everything]]'', Sciama was played by [[David Thewlis]]. Physicist [[Adrian Melott]] strongly criticized the portrayal of Sciama in the film.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Vews: 'The Theory of Everything' is missing something|journal=Astronomy & Geophysics|volume=56|issue=2|year=2015|pages=2.9-c–2.9|first=Adrian|last=Melott|year=2015|issn=1366-8781|doi=10.1093/astrogeo/atv057}}</ref>
He was an atheist.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rsbm.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/roybiogmem/56/401.full.pdf |title=Dennis William Sciama 18 November 1926 — 19 December 1999 |author= George F. R. Ellis and Sir Roger Penrose |date=2010-05-26 |accessdate=2017-07-12}}</ref>


==Personal life==
== In popular culture ==
⚫
In 1959, Sciama married Lidia Dina, a social anthropologist, who survived him, along with their two daughters. He was an atheist.<ref name=rsbm/>
Sciama has been portrayed in a number of biographical projects about his most famous student, Stephen Hawking:
* In the 2004 BBC TV movie ''[[Hawking (2004 film)|Hawking]]'', Sciama was played by [[John Sessions]].
* In the 2014 film ''[[The Theory of Everything (2014 film)|The Theory of Everything]]'', Sciama was played by [[David Thewlis]]. Physicist [[Adrian Melott]] strongly criticized the portrayal of Sciama in the film.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Melott|first1=Adrian|title=Views: ''The Theory of Everything'' Is Missing Something|url=http://astrogeo.oxfordjournals.org/content/56/2/2.9.3.full|website=Astronomy and Geophysics|accessdate=22 November 2016}}</ref>

== Bibliography ==
⚫
* 1959. ''The Unity of the Universe''. Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday.
⚫
* 1969. ''The Physical Foundations of General Relativity''. New York: Doubleday. [[Science Study Series]]. Short (104 pages) and clearly written non-mathematical book on the physical and conceptual foundations of General Relativity. Could be read with profit by physics students before immersing themselves in more technical studies of General Relativity.
⚫
* 1971. ''Modern Cosmology''. [[Cambridge University Press]].
⚫
* 1993. [https://books.google.com/books/about/Modern_Cosmology_and_the_Dark_Matter_Pro.html?id=7dTOlXBLiFQC ''Modern Cosmology and the Dark Matter Problem'']. Cambridge University Press.


== References ==
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist|35em}}

== External links ==
* ''The Renaissance of General Relativity and Cosmology'', eds. G. F. R. Ellis et al., Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993. (Contains a Sciama Festschrift with Sciama's complete scientific genealogy).
*[http://www.sissa.it/ap/activity/sciama.php Short biography] (source for much of this entry)
⚫
*{{MathGenealogy|id=72653|title=Dennis Sciama}}
* [https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/33994 Oral History interview transcript with Dennis W. Sciama 25 January 1989], [[American Institute of Physics]], Niels Bohr Library and Archives
* [http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/73/101073574/ Sciama, Dennis William (1926–1999), cosmologist]. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.


{{FRS 1983}}
{{FRS 1983}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Authority control}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Sciama, Dennis W}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sciama, Dennis Wiliam}}
[[Category:1926 births]]
[[Category:1926 births]]
[[Category:1999 deaths]]
[[Category:1999 deaths]]

Revision as of 01:42, 29 October 2017

Dennis Sciama
FRS
Dennis William Siahou Sciama (1926–1999)
Born
Dennis William Siahou Sciama

(1926-11-18)18 November 1926
Manchester, Lancashire, UK
Died18/19 December 1999 (aged 73)
Oxford, UK
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge
Known forAstrophysics
cosmology
Spouse(s)Lidia Dina (1959–1999; his death; 2 children)
AwardsFaraday Medal (1991)[1] Guthrie Medal and Prize (1991)
Scientific career
FieldsPhysicist
InstitutionsUniversity of Oxford
University of Cambridge
Cornell University
Harvard University
King's College London
University of Texas at Austin
Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati
Doctoral advisorPaul Dirac[2]
Doctoral students

Dennis William Siahou Sciama, FRS (/ʃiˈæmə/; 18 November 1926 – 18/19 December 1999)[5][6] was a British physicist who, through his own work and that of his students, played a major role in developing British physics after the Second World War.[7][8] He is considered one of the fathers of modern cosmology.[9][10][11][12]

Education and early life

Sciama was born in Manchester, England, the son of Nelly Ades and Abraham Sciama.[13] He was of Syrian Jewish ancestry—his father born in Manchester and his mother born in Egypt both traced their roots back to Aleppo, Syria.[14]

Sciama earned his PhD in 1953 at the University of Cambridge supervised by Paul Dirac,[2] with a dissertation on Mach's principle and inertia. His work later influenced the formulation of scalar-tensor theories of gravity.

Career and research

Sciama taught at Cornell University, King's College London, Harvard University and the University of Texas at Austin, but spent most of his career at the University of Cambridge (1950s and 1960s) and the University of Oxford as a Senior Research Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford (1970s and early 1980s). In 1983, he moved from Oxford to Trieste, becoming Professor of Astrophysics at the International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA), and a consultant with the International Centre for Theoretical Physics.

During the 1990s, he divided his time between Trieste (and a residence in nearby Venice) and Oxford, where he was a visiting professor until the end of his life. His main home remained in his house in Park Town, Oxford.

Sciama made connections among some topics in astronomy and astrophysics. He wrote on radio astronomy, X-ray astronomy, quasars, the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave radiation, the interstellar and intergalactic medium, astroparticle physics and the nature of dark matter. Most significant was his work in general relativity, with and without quantum theory, and black holes. He helped revitalize the classical relativistic alternative to general relativity known as Einstein-Cartan gravity.

Early in his career, he supported Fred Hoyle's steady state cosmology, and interacted with Hoyle, Hermann Bondi, and Thomas Gold. When evidence against the steady state theory, e.g., the cosmic microwave radiation, mounted in the 1960s, Sciama abandoned it.

During his last years, Sciama became interested in the issue of Dark Matter in galaxies. Among other aspects he pursued a theory of dark matter that consists of a heavy neutrino, certainly disfavored in his realization, but still possible in a more complicated scenario.

Doctoral students

Several leading astrophysicists and cosmologists of the modern era completed their doctorates under Sciama's supervision, notably:

Sciama also strongly influenced Roger Penrose, who dedicated his The Road to Reality to Sciama's memory. The 1960s group he led in Cambridge (which included Ellis, Hawking, Rees, and Carter), has proved of lasting influence.

Publications

Awards and honours

Sciama was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1983.[5] He was also an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the Academia Lincei of Rome. He served as president of the International Society of General Relativity and Gravitation, 1980–84.

His work at SISSA and the University of Oxford led to the creation of a lecture series in his honour, the Dennis Sciama Memorial Lectures.[15] In 2009, the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth elected to name their new building, and their supercomputer in 2011, in his honour.[16]

Sciama has been portrayed in a number of biographical projects about his most famous student, Stephen Hawking. In the 2004 BBC TV movie Hawking, Sciama was played by John Sessions. In the 2014 film The Theory of Everything, Sciama was played by David Thewlis. Physicist Adrian Melott strongly criticized the portrayal of Sciama in the film.[17]

Personal life

In 1959, Sciama married Lidia Dina, a social anthropologist, who survived him, along with their two daughters. He was an atheist.[5]

References

  1. ^ "Institute of Physics awards". Iop.org. 21 February 2012. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Dennis Sciama at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  3. ^ a b Hawking, Stephen William (1966). Properties of Expanding Universes (PDF) (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. doi:10.17863/CAM.11283. OCLC 62793673.
  4. ^ a b Rees, Martin (1967). Physical Processes in Radio Sources and the Intergalactic Medium (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge.
  5. ^ a b c Ellis, George F. R.; Penrose, Roger (2010). "Dennis William Sciama. 18 November 1926 -- 19 December 1999". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 56: 401. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2009.0023. Open access icon
  6. ^ Ellis, George F. R. (2000). "Dennis Sciama (1926–99)". Nature. 403 (6771): 722. Bibcode:2000Natur.403..722E. doi:10.1038/35001716. PMID 10693790.
  7. ^ "PhysicsWorld Archive » Volume 13 » Obituary: Dennis Sciama 1926–1999". Physicsworldarchive.iop.org. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  8. ^ "PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY VOL. 145, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2001" (PDF). Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  9. ^ The Renaissance of General Relativity and Cosmology, eds. G. F. R. Ellis et al., Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993. (Contains a Sciama Festschrift with Sciama's complete scientific genealogy). [ISBN missing]
  10. ^ Short biography (source for much of this entry)
  11. ^ Oral History interview transcript with Dennis W. Sciama 25 January 1989, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives
  12. ^ Sciama, Dennis William (1926–1999), cosmologist. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/73574
  13. ^ The International Who's Who, 1997-98
  14. ^ Helge Kragh (1999). Cosmology and Controversy: The Historical Development of Two Theories of the Universe H (1st ed.). University of Chicago Press. p. 220.
  15. ^ Dennis Sciama Memorial Lectures, SISSA, Italy.
  16. ^ "University Buildings | Contact and maps | University of Portsmouth". Port.ac.uk. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  17. ^ Melott, Adrian (2015). "Vews: 'The Theory of Everything' is missing something". Astronomy & Geophysics. 56 (2): 2.9-c–2.9. doi:10.1093/astrogeo/atv057. ISSN 1366-8781.
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