Simon White: Difference between revisions
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{{short description|British astronomer}} |
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{{About||the Australian rules footballer|Simon White (footballer)|the English cricketer|Simon White (cricketer)}} |
{{About||the Australian rules footballer|Simon White (footballer)|the English cricketer|Simon White (cricketer)}} |
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{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}} |
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{{Infobox scientist |
{{Infobox scientist |
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| known_for = Cosmological structure formation |
| known_for = Cosmological structure formation |
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| societies = |
| societies = |
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| prizes = |
| prizes = [[Helen B. Warner Prize]] (1986)<br/>[[Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics|Heineman Prize]] (2005)<br/>[[Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society]] (2006)<br/>[[Brouwer Award (Division on Dynamical Astronomy)|Brouwer Award]] (2008)<br/>[[Max Born Prize]] (2010) <br/>[[Shaw Prize]] (2017) |
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| religion = |
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⚫ | '''Simon David Manton White''' (born 30 September 1951), [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]], is a British-German astrophysicist. He was one of directors at the [[Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics]] before his retirement in late 2019.<ref>He is now an emeritus scientific member along with other former directors Wolfgang Hillebrandt and Rashid Sunyaev. There was a special symposium on 29 November 2019 at MPA to celebrate his retirement.</ref> |
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⚫ | '''Simon David Manton White''' (born 30 September 1951), [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]], is a British astrophysicist. He was one of directors at the [[Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics]] before his retirement in late 2019<ref>He is now |
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== Life == |
== Life == |
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White studied [[ |
White studied [[mathematics]] at [[Jesus College, Cambridge]] in [[the University of Cambridge]] (B.A. 1972) and [[Astronomy]] at the [[University of Toronto]] (MSc 1974). In 1977 he obtained a doctorate in Astronomy under [[Donald Lynden-Bell]] entitled "The Clustering of Galaxies" at the [[University of Cambridge]]. After a few years at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], the [[Steward Observatory]] of the [[University of Arizona]] and |
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the University of Cambridge he was appointed in 1994 as a Scientific Member of the [[Max Planck Society]] and as |
the University of Cambridge he was appointed in 1994 as a Scientific Member of the [[Max Planck Society]] and as director of the [[Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics]] in [[Garching bei München|Garching]]. White has also been research professor at the [[University of Arizona]] (1992), guest professor at the [[University of Durham]] (1995), honorary professor at the [[Ludwig-Maximilians University]] in Munich (1994) and at the Astronomical Observatories of Shanghai ([[Shanghai Astronomical Observatory|SHAO]]) (1999) and Beijing (BAO) (2001). White lives in Munich with his wife, the astrophysicist [[Guinevere Kauffmann]]. They have one son.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/~swhite |title=Simon D. M. White |website=mpa-garching.mpg.de |access-date=10 September 2012}}</ref> In 2016, the day after the Brexit vote, White filed papers to obtain German citizenship.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/~swhite/SW_long_bio.pdf|title=Biographical notes for the Shaw Foundation, 2017|access-date=10 October 2024}}</ref> |
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Munich with his wife, the astrophysicist [[Guinevere Kauffmann]], and their son Jonathan.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/~swhite |title=Simon D. M. White |website=mpa-garching.mpg.de |accessdate=10 September 2012}}</ref> |
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== Work == |
== Work == |
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Already at the time of his doctoral work he studied the influence of [[Dark Matter]] on the growth of structure and in 1978 he and [[Martin Rees]] argued that the properties of galaxies can be understood if they |
Already at the time of his doctoral work he studied the influence of [[Dark Matter]] on the growth of structure and in 1978 he and [[Martin Rees]] argued that the properties of galaxies can be understood if they |
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form by condensation of gas at the centres of extended |
form by gravitationally driven condensation of gas at the centres of extended dark matter halos as these grow steadily in mass through accretion and merging.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=White|first1=Simon|last2=Rees|first2=Martin|date=May 1978|title=Core condensation in heavy halos - A two-stage theory for galaxy formation and clustering|journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society|volume=183|issue=3|pages=341–358|doi = 10.1093/mnras/183.3.341|bibcode = 1978MNRAS.183..341W |doi-access=free}}</ref> This has been the basic paradigm for galaxy formation ever since. |
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In later years White developed computer models which allowed the growth of galaxies and galaxy clustering to |
In later years White developed computer models which allowed the growth of galaxies and galaxy clustering to |
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be simulated directly in order to allow quantitative comparison of theoretical models with astronomical |
be simulated directly in order to allow quantitative comparison of theoretical models with astronomical |
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observations. His 1983 work with [[Marc Davis (astronomer)|Marc Davis]] and [[Carlos Frenk]] demonstrated that the dark matter could not be made of massive neutrinos, at the time the only known elementary particles which were considered possible candidates.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=White |first1=Simon |last2=Frenk |first2=Carlos |last3=Davis |first3=Marc |date=November 1983 |title=Clustering in a neutrino-dominated universe |journal=The Astrophysical Journal |volume=274 |pages=L1–L5 |doi=10.1086/184139 |bibcode=1983ApJ...274L...1W}}</ref> Their subsequent work together with [[George Efstathiou]] was particularly |
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observations. His work with [[Marc Davis (astronomer)|Marc Davis]], [[George Efstathiou]] and [[Carlos Frenk]] was particularly |
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influential in establishing that a universe dominated by Cold Dark Matter could produce large-scale structure |
influential in establishing that a universe dominated by Cold Dark Matter (a new kind of elementary particle of unknown type) could produce large-scale structure |
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in the galaxy distribution which closely |
in the galaxy distribution which does closely resemble that observed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Davis |first1=Marc |last2=Efstathiou |first2=George |last3=Frenk |first3=Carlos |last4=White |first4=Simon |date=May 1985 |title=The evolution of large-scale structure in a universe dominated by cold dark matter |journal=The Astrophysical Journal |volume=292 |pages=371–394 |doi=10.1086/163168 |bibcode=1985ApJ...292..371D}}</ref> A more recent large project was |
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the [[Millennium Simulation]], carried out in Garching in 2005 as part of the work of a large international |
the [[Millennium Simulation]], carried out in Garching in 2005 as part of the work of a large international |
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collaboration, the [[Virgo Consortium]]. |
collaboration, the [[Virgo Consortium]]. At the time, this was the largest [[N-body simulation]] ever carried out, with 10 billion N-body particles representing the dark matter distribution, and using simplified physical recipes to follow the formation and evolution of more than 20,000,000 |
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galaxies throughout a cubic region more than 2 billion light-years on a side.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Springel|first1=Volker|display-authors=etal|title=Simulations of the formation, evolution and clustering of galaxies and quasars|journal=Nature|date=June 2005|volume=435|pages=629–636|doi=10.1038/nature03597|arxiv=astro-ph/0504097|bibcode=2005Natur.435..629S}}</ref> |
galaxies throughout a cubic region more than 2 billion light-years on a side.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Springel|first1=Volker|display-authors=etal|title=Simulations of the formation, evolution and clustering of galaxies and quasars|journal=Nature|date=June 2005|volume=435|issue=7042|pages=629–636|doi=10.1038/nature03597|pmid=15931216|arxiv=astro-ph/0504097|bibcode=2005Natur.435..629S|s2cid=4383030}}</ref> |
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Work by White has addressed issues of stellar dynamics, of the detailed structure |
Work by White has addressed issues of stellar dynamics, of the detailed structure |
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of galaxies and their dark halos, of the processes controlling galaxy formation, of the structure and evolution of galaxy clusters, and of the statistics of galaxy clustering. Papers include |
of galaxies and their dark halos, of the processes controlling galaxy formation, of the structure and evolution of galaxy clusters, of the formation of elliptical galaxies through galaxy mergers, and of the statistics of galaxy clustering. Papers include |
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those with [[Julio Navarro (astrophysicist)|Julio Navarro]] and [[Carlos Frenk]] on the "universal" structure of dark matter halos.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Navarro, Julio |author2=Frenk, Carlos|author3=White, Simon|title=A Universal Density Profile from Hierarchical Clustering |journal=The Astrophysical Journal |date=December 1997 |volume=490 |issue=2 |pages=493–508 |doi=10.1086/304888 |arxiv=astro-ph/9611107 |bibcode=1997ApJ...490..493N}}</ref> The [[Navarro–Frenk–White profile]] is named after them. |
those with [[Julio Navarro (astrophysicist)|Julio Navarro]] and [[Carlos Frenk]] on the "universal" structure of dark matter halos.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Navarro, Julio |author2=Frenk, Carlos|author3=White, Simon|title=A Universal Density Profile from Hierarchical Clustering |journal=The Astrophysical Journal |date=December 1997 |volume=490 |issue=2 |pages=493–508 |doi=10.1086/304888 |arxiv=astro-ph/9611107 |bibcode=1997ApJ...490..493N|s2cid=3067250}}</ref> The [[Navarro–Frenk–White profile]] is named after them, and the 1996 and 1997 papers in which they systematically used cosmological [[N-body simulations]] to explore its properties are currently White's highest impact theoretical work (with more than 21,000 citations according to [[Google Scholar]]). This is because these two papers demonstrated that the characteristic size and density of dark matter halos are tightly related to their mass in a way which depends on, and so can be used to measure, important properties of our universe as a whole, for example, its material content and its spatial curvature, as well as the properties of the initial conditions from which all cosmic structure has grown. |
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White's more than 500 publications in the refereed professional literature have been cited more than |
White's more than 500 publications in the refereed professional literature have been cited more than 258,000 times by other scientists (status end-2023 according to [[Google Scholar]]). |
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== Awards and honours == |
== Awards and honours == |
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* Fellow of the [[Royal Society]], 1997 |
* Fellow of the [[Royal Society]], 1997 |
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* Max-Planck Research Prize for International Cooperation, 2000 |
* Max-Planck Research Prize for International Cooperation, 2000 |
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* [[Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics]] of the AIP/AAS, 2005 |
* [[Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics]] of the AIP/AAS, 2005 (with [[George Efstathiou]]) |
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* Fellow of the [[Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina]], 2005 |
* Fellow of the [[Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina]], 2005 |
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* [[Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society]], 2006 |
* [[Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society]], 2006 |
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* [[Max Born Prize]] of the German Physical Society and the Institute of Physics, 2010 |
* [[Max Born Prize]] of the German Physical Society and the Institute of Physics, 2010 |
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* Honorary Citizen of the City of Padova, 2010 |
* Honorary Citizen of the City of Padova, 2010 |
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* [[Gruber Prize in Cosmology]] 2011<ref>{{cite press release |url=http://www.gruberprizes.org/PressReleases/PressRelease_2011_Cosmology.php |title='Gang of Four' Receives $500,000 Gruber Cosmology Prize for Reconstructing How the Universe Grew |date=1 June 2011 |publisher=Gruber Foundation |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608063703/http://www.gruberprizes.org/PressReleases/PressRelease_2011_Cosmology.php |archive-date=2011-06-08}}</ref> |
* [[Gruber Prize in Cosmology]] 2011 (with [[Marc Davis (astronomer)|Marc Davis]], [[George Efstathiou]] and [[Carlos Frenk]])<ref>{{cite press release |url=http://www.gruberprizes.org/PressReleases/PressRelease_2011_Cosmology.php |title='Gang of Four' Receives $500,000 Gruber Cosmology Prize for Reconstructing How the Universe Grew |date=1 June 2011 |publisher=Gruber Foundation |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608063703/http://www.gruberprizes.org/PressReleases/PressRelease_2011_Cosmology.php |archive-date=2011-06-08}}</ref> |
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* Foreign Member of the [[Chinese Academy of Sciences]], 2015<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cas.cn/tz/201512/t20151207_4488383.shtml |title=关于公布2015年中国科学院院士增选当选院士名单的公告 |language= |
* Foreign Member of the [[Chinese Academy of Sciences]], 2015<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cas.cn/tz/201512/t20151207_4488383.shtml |title=关于公布2015年中国科学院院士增选当选院士名单的公告 |language=zh |trans-title=Announcement on the publication of the list of academicians elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2015 |date=7 December 2015 |publisher=Chinese Academy of Sciences}}</ref> |
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* [[Shaw Prize]] 2017 in Astronomy<ref>{{cite press release |url= |
* [[Shaw Prize]] 2017 in Astronomy<ref>{{cite press release |url=https://www.shawprize.org/laureates/2017-astronomy/ |publisher=The Shaw Prize |title=Announcement of The Shaw Laureates 2017 |date=23 May 2017}}</ref> |
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* [[Clarivate Citation Laureate]] in Physics 2020<ref>{{cite web |title=Clarivate Reveals 2020 Citation Laureates - Annual List of Researchers of Nobel Class |date=23 September 2020 |publisher=PR Newswire|url=https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/clarivate-reveals-2020-citation-laureates---annual-list-of-researchers-of-nobel-class-301136248.html}}</ref> |
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== References == |
== References == |
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{{Shaw Prize laureates}} |
{{Shaw Prize laureates}} |
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{{FRS 1997}} |
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{{Authority control}} |
{{Authority control}} |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Simon}} |
{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Simon}} |
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[[Category:British astronomers]] |
[[Category:20th-century British astronomers]] |
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[[Category:1951 births]] |
[[Category:1951 births]] |
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[[Category:Living people]] |
[[Category:Living people]] |
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[[Category:Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences]] |
[[Category:Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences]] |
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[[Category:Winners of the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics]] |
[[Category:Winners of the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics]] |
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[[Category:21st-century British astronomers]] |
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[[Category:Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge]] |
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[[Category:Max Planck Institute directors]] |
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[[Category:University of Toronto alumni]] |
Latest revision as of 16:14, 26 November 2024
Simon David Manton White | |
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Born | |
Alma mater | Jesus College, Cambridge University of Toronto |
Known for | Cosmological structure formation |
Spouse | Guinevere Kauffmann |
Awards | Helen B. Warner Prize (1986) Heineman Prize (2005) Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (2006) Brouwer Award (2008) Max Born Prize (2010) Shaw Prize (2017) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Astrophysics and cosmology |
Institutions | University of California, Berkeley University of Arizona University of Cambridge Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics |
Thesis | The Clustering of Galaxies[1] (1977) |
Doctoral advisor | Donald Lynden-Bell |
Simon David Manton White (born 30 September 1951), FRS, is a British-German astrophysicist. He was one of directors at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics before his retirement in late 2019.[2]
Life
[edit]White studied mathematics at Jesus College, Cambridge in the University of Cambridge (B.A. 1972) and Astronomy at the University of Toronto (MSc 1974). In 1977 he obtained a doctorate in Astronomy under Donald Lynden-Bell entitled "The Clustering of Galaxies" at the University of Cambridge. After a few years at the University of California, Berkeley, the Steward Observatory of the University of Arizona and the University of Cambridge he was appointed in 1994 as a Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society and as director of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching. White has also been research professor at the University of Arizona (1992), guest professor at the University of Durham (1995), honorary professor at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich (1994) and at the Astronomical Observatories of Shanghai (SHAO) (1999) and Beijing (BAO) (2001). White lives in Munich with his wife, the astrophysicist Guinevere Kauffmann. They have one son.[3] In 2016, the day after the Brexit vote, White filed papers to obtain German citizenship.[4]
Work
[edit]White has worked primarily on the formation of structure in the Universe. He is known for his contributions to our understanding of galaxy formation and for his role in helping to establish the viability of the current standard model for the evolution of cosmic structure, the so-called ΛCDM model.
Already at the time of his doctoral work he studied the influence of Dark Matter on the growth of structure and in 1978 he and Martin Rees argued that the properties of galaxies can be understood if they form by gravitationally driven condensation of gas at the centres of extended dark matter halos as these grow steadily in mass through accretion and merging.[5] This has been the basic paradigm for galaxy formation ever since.
In later years White developed computer models which allowed the growth of galaxies and galaxy clustering to be simulated directly in order to allow quantitative comparison of theoretical models with astronomical observations. His 1983 work with Marc Davis and Carlos Frenk demonstrated that the dark matter could not be made of massive neutrinos, at the time the only known elementary particles which were considered possible candidates.[6] Their subsequent work together with George Efstathiou was particularly influential in establishing that a universe dominated by Cold Dark Matter (a new kind of elementary particle of unknown type) could produce large-scale structure in the galaxy distribution which does closely resemble that observed.[7] A more recent large project was the Millennium Simulation, carried out in Garching in 2005 as part of the work of a large international collaboration, the Virgo Consortium. At the time, this was the largest N-body simulation ever carried out, with 10 billion N-body particles representing the dark matter distribution, and using simplified physical recipes to follow the formation and evolution of more than 20,000,000 galaxies throughout a cubic region more than 2 billion light-years on a side.[8]
Work by White has addressed issues of stellar dynamics, of the detailed structure of galaxies and their dark halos, of the processes controlling galaxy formation, of the structure and evolution of galaxy clusters, of the formation of elliptical galaxies through galaxy mergers, and of the statistics of galaxy clustering. Papers include those with Julio Navarro and Carlos Frenk on the "universal" structure of dark matter halos.[9] The Navarro–Frenk–White profile is named after them, and the 1996 and 1997 papers in which they systematically used cosmological N-body simulations to explore its properties are currently White's highest impact theoretical work (with more than 21,000 citations according to Google Scholar). This is because these two papers demonstrated that the characteristic size and density of dark matter halos are tightly related to their mass in a way which depends on, and so can be used to measure, important properties of our universe as a whole, for example, its material content and its spatial curvature, as well as the properties of the initial conditions from which all cosmic structure has grown.
White's more than 500 publications in the refereed professional literature have been cited more than 258,000 times by other scientists (status end-2023 according to Google Scholar).
Awards and honours
[edit]- Helen B. Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society, 1986
- Editor of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1992–present
- Fellow of the Royal Society, 1997
- Max-Planck Research Prize for International Cooperation, 2000
- Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics of the AIP/AAS, 2005 (with George Efstathiou)
- Fellow of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina, 2005
- Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2006
- Honorary Doctorate (D.Sc.) at the University of Durham, 2007
- Foreign Associate, US National Academy of Sciences, 2007
- Brouwer Award (Division on Dynamical Astronomy) of the American Astronomical Society, 2008
- European Latsis Prize 2008: Astrophysics
- Fellow of the Academia Europaea, 2009
- Max Born Prize of the German Physical Society and the Institute of Physics, 2010
- Honorary Citizen of the City of Padova, 2010
- Gruber Prize in Cosmology 2011 (with Marc Davis, George Efstathiou and Carlos Frenk)[10]
- Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2015[11]
- Shaw Prize 2017 in Astronomy[12]
- Clarivate Citation Laureate in Physics 2020[13]
References
[edit]- ^ Simon White at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- ^ He is now an emeritus scientific member along with other former directors Wolfgang Hillebrandt and Rashid Sunyaev. There was a special symposium on 29 November 2019 at MPA to celebrate his retirement.
- ^ "Simon D. M. White". mpa-garching.mpg.de. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
- ^ "Biographical notes for the Shaw Foundation, 2017" (PDF). Retrieved 10 October 2024.
- ^ White, Simon; Rees, Martin (May 1978). "Core condensation in heavy halos - A two-stage theory for galaxy formation and clustering". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 183 (3): 341–358. Bibcode:1978MNRAS.183..341W. doi:10.1093/mnras/183.3.341.
- ^ White, Simon; Frenk, Carlos; Davis, Marc (November 1983). "Clustering in a neutrino-dominated universe". The Astrophysical Journal. 274: L1–L5. Bibcode:1983ApJ...274L...1W. doi:10.1086/184139.
- ^ Davis, Marc; Efstathiou, George; Frenk, Carlos; White, Simon (May 1985). "The evolution of large-scale structure in a universe dominated by cold dark matter". The Astrophysical Journal. 292: 371–394. Bibcode:1985ApJ...292..371D. doi:10.1086/163168.
- ^ Springel, Volker; et al. (June 2005). "Simulations of the formation, evolution and clustering of galaxies and quasars". Nature. 435 (7042): 629–636. arXiv:astro-ph/0504097. Bibcode:2005Natur.435..629S. doi:10.1038/nature03597. PMID 15931216. S2CID 4383030.
- ^ Navarro, Julio; Frenk, Carlos; White, Simon (December 1997). "A Universal Density Profile from Hierarchical Clustering". The Astrophysical Journal. 490 (2): 493–508. arXiv:astro-ph/9611107. Bibcode:1997ApJ...490..493N. doi:10.1086/304888. S2CID 3067250.
- ^ "'Gang of Four' Receives $500,000 Gruber Cosmology Prize for Reconstructing How the Universe Grew" (Press release). Gruber Foundation. 1 June 2011. Archived from the original on 8 June 2011.
- ^ "关于公布2015年中国科学院院士增选当选院士名单的公告" [Announcement on the publication of the list of academicians elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2015] (in Chinese). Chinese Academy of Sciences. 7 December 2015.
- ^ "Announcement of The Shaw Laureates 2017" (Press release). The Shaw Prize. 23 May 2017.
- ^ "Clarivate Reveals 2020 Citation Laureates - Annual List of Researchers of Nobel Class". PR Newswire. 23 September 2020.
External links
[edit]- Simon White site
- Interview with Simon White from October 2011
- 20th-century British astronomers
- 1951 births
- Living people
- Recipients of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
- People from Ashford, Kent
- Fellows of the Royal Society
- Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
- Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Winners of the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics
- 21st-century British astronomers
- Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge
- Max Planck Institute directors
- University of Toronto alumni