Jump to content

John D. Barrow

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Crink (talk | contribs) at 23:38, 3 October 2013 (Correcting link). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is about the English theoretical physicist John David Barrow. For other uses, see John Barrow (disambiguation).
John D. Barrow
Born (1952-11-29) 29 November 1952 (age 71)
London, England, UK
Alma materUniversity of Durham
University of Oxford
AwardsTempleton prize (2006)
Scientific career
FieldsPhysicist and mathematician
InstitutionsUniversity of Cambridge
Gresham College
University of California, Berkeley
University of Sussex
Doctoral advisorDennis William Sciama
Doctoral studentsPeter Coles
David Wands

John David Barrow FRS (born 29 November 1952) is an English cosmologist, theoretical physicist, and mathematician. He is currently Research Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge. Barrow is also a writer of popular science and an amateur playwright.

Life

Barrow attended Barham Primary School in Wembley until 1964 and Ealing Grammar School for Boys from 1964–71 and obtained his first degree in mathematics and physics from Van Mildert College at the University of Durham in 1974.[1] In 1977, he completed his doctorate in astrophysics at Magdalen College, Oxford, under Dennis William Sciama. He was a Junior Research Lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford, from 1977–81. He did two postdoctoral years in astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, as a Commonwealth Lindemann Fellow (1977–8) and Miller Fellow (1980–1).

In 1981 he joined the University of Sussex and rose to the rank of Professor and Director of the Astronomy Centre. In 1999, he became Professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and a fellow in Clare Hall at Cambridge University. He is Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project. From 2003–2007 he was Gresham Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College, London, and he has been appointed as Gresham Professor of Geometry from 2008–2011; only one person has previously held two different Gresham chairs.[2] In 2008, the Royal Society awarded him the Faraday Prize.

In addition to having published more than 480 journal articles, Barrow has coauthored (with Frank J. Tipler) The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, a work on the history of the ideas, specifically intelligent design and teleology, as well as a treatise on astrophysics. He has also published 17 books for general readers, beginning with his 1983 The Left Hand of Creation. His books summarise the state of the affairs of physical questions, often in the form of compendia of a large number of facts assembled from the works of great physicists, such as Paul Dirac and Arthur Eddington.

Barrow's approach to philosophical issues posed by physical cosmology makes his books accessible to general readers. For example, Barrow introduced a memorable paradox, which he called "the Groucho Marx Effect" (see Russell-like paradoxes). Here, he quotes Groucho Marx: "I wouldn't want to belong to any club that would accept me as a member". Applying this to problems in cosmology, Barrow states: "A universe simple enough to be understood is too simple to produce a mind capable of understanding it."[3] That is, the better we understand the problem, the more likely it is to be oversimplified. Conversely, the closer we get to a description of reality, the more complex and incomprehensible the description becomes. There would be few if any fields of study in which this paradox does not apply.

Barrow has lectured at 10 Downing Street, Windsor Castle, the Vatican, and to the general public. In 2002, his play Infinities premiered in Milan, played in Valencia, and won the Premi Ubu 2002 Italian Theatre Prize.

He was awarded the 2006 Templeton Prize for "Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities" for his "writings about the relationship between life and the universe, and the nature of human understanding [which] have created new perspectives on questions of ultimate concern to science and religion".[4] He is a member of a United Reformed Church, which he describes as teaching "a traditional deistic picture of the universe".[5]

Books

In English:

  1. Cosmic Imagery: Key Images in the History of Science. ISBN 978-0224075237'
  2. New Theories of Everything. ISBN 978-0192807212
  3. Between Inner Space and Outer Space: Essays on the Science, Art, and Philosophy of the Origin of the Universe
  4. Impossibility: Limits of Science and the Science of Limits. ISBN 0-09-977211-6
  5. Material Content of the Universe
  6. Pi in the Sky: Counting, Thinking, and Being
  7. Science and Ultimate Reality: Quantum Theory, Cosmology and Complexity
  8. Barrow, John D.; Tipler, Frank J. (1986). The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-282147-8. LCCN 87028148.
  9. The Artful Universe: The Cosmic Source of Human Creativity
  10. The Book of Nothing: Vacuums, Voids, and the Latest Ideas about the Origins of the Universe
  11. The Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless
  12. The Left Hand of Creation: The Origin and Evolution of the Expanding Universe
  13. The Origin of the Universe: To the Edge of Space and Time
  14. The Universe That Discovered Itself
  15. The World Within the World
  16. Theories of Everything: The Quest for Ultimate Explanation
  17. The Constants of Nature: The Numbers that Encode the Deepest Secrets of the Universe
  18. 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know
  19. Mathletics: A Scientist Explains 100 Amazing Things About The World of Sports

In other languages:

  1. L'Homme et le Cosmos (in French)
  2. Perché il Mondo è Matematico? (in Italian)

See also

References

  1. ^ "Durham graduate wins $1M prize". University of Durham Department of Physics. 20 March 2006. Retrieved 24 November 2007. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ Gresham College: New Gresham Chair of Geometry.
  3. ^ Barrow, John D (1990). The World Within the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 342–343. ISBN 0-19-286108-5. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)
  4. ^ Lehr, Donald (15 March 2006). "John Barrow wins 2006 Templeton Prize". templetonprize.org. John Templeton Foundation. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
  5. ^ Overbye, Dennis (16 March 2006). "Math Professor Wins a Coveted Religion Award". New York Times. Retrieved 24 November 2007. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

Publications available on the Internet

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_D._Barrow&oldid=575654780"