Francis Everitt
Francis Everitt | |
|---|---|
 Francis Everitt at a NASA press conference | |
| Occupation | physicist |
| Known for | Gravity Probe B, relativity |
C. W. Francis Everitt is a US-based English physicist working on experimental testing of general relativity. Everitt was educated at Imperial College London and the University of Pennsylvania in low-temperature physics.[1] He is Professor at the Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory of Stanford University and is also an Associate Member of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC).
Everitt known most as Principal Investigator of the Gravity Probe B mission mainly aimed to test frame-dragging at an expected accuracy of 1%. According to general relativity, it is an effect induced by the rotation of the Earth on orbiting gyroscopes. Everitt spent more than 40 years on such project and was awarded with the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal. Unfortunately, latest developments of the data analysis of the GP-B mission points towards the inability of reaching the ambitious goal of a 1% accuracy in measuring frame-dragging. Besides, it is hard to repeat the measurement for the scientific world to achieve the consensus. However, the technologies developed via GP-B program benefit experimental physical sciences in many ways.
Bibliometric information
According to the NASA ADS database, the h-index of C.W.F. Everitt is 14, with a total number of citations (self-citations excluded) of 604.
References
- ^ Kahn, Bob (May 9, 2005). "Stanford physicist Francis Everitt awarded NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal". Press release. Stanford University. Retrieved May 5, 2011.