Neil Geoffrey Turok (born 16 November 1958) is a South African

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

. He has held the Higgs Chair of Theoretical Physics at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

since 2020, and has been director emeritus of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics since 2019. He specializes in mathematical physics and early-universe physics, including the

cosmological constant In cosmology, the cosmological constant (usually denoted by the Greek capital letter lambda: ), alternatively called Einstein's cosmological constant, is a coefficient that Albert Einstein initially added to his field equations of general rel ...

and a

cyclic model A cyclic model (or oscillating model) is any of several cosmological models in which the universe follows infinite, or indefinite, self-sustaining cycles. For example, the oscillating universe theory briefly considered by Albert Einstein in 1930 ...

for the universe.

Early life and career

Turok was born on 16 November 1958 in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, to Mary Turok and Byelorussian-born

Ben Turok Benjamin Turok (26 June 1927 – 9 December 2019) was a South African anti-apartheid activist, politician, and economics professor. He represented the African National Congress in the post-apartheid National Assembly from 1994 to 2014. Early l ...

, who were activists in the

anti-apartheid movement The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) was a British organisation that was at the centre of the international movement opposing the South African apartheid system and supporting South Africa's non-white population who were oppressed by the policies ...

and the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

. After graduating from

Churchill College, Cambridge Churchill College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. It has a primary focus on science, engineering and technology, but retains a strong interest in the arts ...

, Turok gained his doctorate from

Imperial College, London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

, under the supervision of David Olive, one of the inventors of

superstring theory Superstring theory is an attempt to explain all of the particles and fundamental forces of nature in one theory by modeling them as vibrations of tiny supersymmetric strings. 'Superstring theory' is a shorthand for supersymmetric string t ...

. After a postdoctoral post at Santa Barbara, he was an associate scientist at

Fermilab Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located in Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, is a United States Department of Energy United States Department of Energy National Labs, national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle phys ...

, Illinois. In 1992 he was awarded the Maxwell medal of the

Institute of Physics The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based not-for-profit learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, physics research, research and applied physics, application. It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide ...

for his contributions to theoretical physics. In 1994 he was appointed Professor of Physics at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, then held the Chair of Mathematical Physics at the University of Cambridge starting in 1997. He was appointed Director of the Perimeter Institute in 2008. In 2020, Turok was appointed as the Inaugural Higgs Chair of Theoretical Physics at the

Research and other contributions

Turok has worked in a number of areas of mathematical physics and early universe physics, focusing on observational tests of fundamental physics in

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

. In the early 1990s, his group showed how the polarisation and temperature anisotropies of the

Cosmic microwave background The cosmic microwave background (CMB, CMBR), or relic radiation, is microwave radiation that fills all space in the observable universe. With a standard optical telescope, the background space between stars and galaxies is almost completely dar ...

would be correlated, a prediction which has been confirmed in detail by recent precision measurements by the

WMAP The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), originally known as the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP and Explorer 80), was a NASA spacecraft operating from 2001 to 2010 which measured temperature differences across the sky in the cosmic mic ...

spacecraft. They also developed a key test for the presence of a

, also recently confirmed. NeilTurok1990

Turok and collaborators developed the theory of open inflation. With

Stephen Hawking Stephen William Hawking (8January 194214March 2018) was an English theoretical physics, theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author who was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. Between ...

, he later developed the so-called Hawking-Turok

instanton An instanton (or pseudoparticle) is a notion appearing in theoretical and mathematical physics. An instanton is a classical solution to equations of motion with a finite, non-zero action, either in quantum mechanics or in quantum field theory. M ...

solutions which, according to the no-boundary proposal of Hawking and

James Hartle James Burkett Hartle (August 17, 1939 – May 17, 2023) was an American theoretical physicist. He joined the faculty of the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1966, and was a member of the external faculty of the Santa Fe Institute. Hart ...

, can describe the birth of an inflationary universe. Together with Justin Khoury, Burt Ovrut and

Paul Steinhardt Paul Joseph Steinhardt (born December 25, 1952) is an American theoretical physicist whose principal research is in cosmology and condensed matter physics. He is currently the Albert Einstein Professorship in Science, Albert Einstein Professor in ...

, Turok introduced the notion of the

Ekpyrotic Universe The ekpyrotic universe () is a cosmological model of the early universe that explains the origin of the large-scale structure of the cosmos. The model has also been incorporated in the cyclic universe theory (or ekpyrotic cyclic universe theory) ...

, "... a cosmological model in which the hot big bang universe is produced by the collision of a

brane In string theory and related theories (such as supergravity), a brane is a physical object that generalizes the notion of a zero-dimensional point particle, a one-dimensional string, or a two-dimensional membrane to higher-dimensional objec ...

in the bulk space with a bounding orbifold plane, beginning from an otherwise cold, vacuous, static universe". Most recently, with

at Princeton, Turok has been developing a

for the universe, in which the big bang is explained as a collision between two "brane-worlds" in M theory. The predictions of this model are in agreement with current cosmological data, but there are interesting differences with the predictions of cosmological inflation which will be probed by future experiments (probably by the

Planck Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (; ; 23 April 1858 – 4 October 1947) was a German theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quanta won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. Planck made many substantial contributions to theoretical p ...

space observatory). In 2006, Steinhardt and Turok showed how the cyclic model could naturally incorporate a mechanism for relaxing the

to very small values, consistent with current observations. In 2007, Steinhardt and Turok co-authored the popular science book ''Endless Universe''. In 2012, Turok's

Massey Lectures The Massey Lectures is an annual five-part series of lectures given in Canada by distinguished writers, thinkers, and scholars who explore important ideas and issues of contemporary interest. Created in 1961 in honour of Vincent Massey, a forme ...

were published as ''The Universe Within: from Quantum to Cosmos''. In 2003, Turok founded the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Muizenberg, a postgraduate educational centre supporting the development of mathematics and science across the African continent.

Awards and honours

He was awarded the 2008 TED Prize for his work in mathematical physics and in establishing the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Muizenberg. He also received a "Most Innovative People Award," for Social Innovation, at the World Summit on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (WSIE) in 2008. On 9 May 2008, Mike Lazaridis announced that Turok would become the new Executive Director of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics starting on 1 October 2008. In 2010 Turok received a prize from the

World Innovation Summit for Education The Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development () is a state-led non-profit organization in Qatar, founded in 1995 by then-emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and his second wife Moza bint Nasser Al-Missned. According to the ...

in Qatar and an award from the South African Mathematical Society. In 2011 Turok received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Ottawa. On 3 November 2011, Turok was selected to deliver the

for the 2012 season. This involves five separate lectures to be delivered in various locations across Canada in October 2012, aired on CBC's '' Ideas'' shortly thereafter. Turok received an honorary doctorate from

Heriot-Watt University Heriot-Watt University () is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and was subsequently granted university status by roya ...

in 2012. In 2012 Turok was the recipient of the Lane Anderson Award for his book ''The Universe Within: From Quantum to Cosmos.'' Turok was awarded the honorary degrees of Doctor of Science, ''honoris causa'' from

UCLouvain UCLouvain (or Université catholique de Louvain , French for Catholic University of Louvain, officially in English the University of Louvain) is Belgium's largest French-speaking university and one of the oldest in Europe (originally establishe ...

(4 February 2019), Saint Mary's University (16 May 2014), the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (9 April 2014) and

Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch University (SU) (, ) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant university in Sub-Sahara ...

(26 March 2015). Turok was awarded the 2016 John Torrence Tate Award at the 2016 SPS Quadrennial Congress in San Francisco.

References

External links

Neil Turok's home page

African Institute for Mathematical Sciences

Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
* http://news.nmmu.ac.za/News/Acclaimed-physicist-to-receive-honorary-doctorate
Interviewed by Tina Kosir on 19 February 2008 (video)

Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 27 April 2017 (video)

Interviewed by Dr. Brian Greene
26 December 2024 (video) {{DEFAULTSORT:Turok, Neil 1958 births Living people Alumni of Churchill College, Cambridge Alumni of Imperial College London Cambridge mathematicians South African cosmologists Fellows of Downing College, Cambridge Maxwell Medal and Prize recipients Officers of the Order of Canada People educated at William Ellis School People from Waterloo, Ontario 20th-century South African physicists Theoretical physicists String theorists