Piet Hut (born September 26, 1952) is a Dutch astrophysicist and interdisciplinary researcher known for his contributions to both scientific research and cross-disciplinary scholarship. He served as the head of the interdisciplinary studies program at the Institute for Advanced Study, where he collaborated with scholars from diverse fields, including natural science, computer science, cognitive psychology, and philosophy. His work also encompasses research in computer simulations of dense stellar systems. He was the Head of the Program in

Interdisciplinary Studies Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several fields such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, economi ...

at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

(IAS) from 2002 until 2023. Asteroid 17031 Piethut is named after him, in honor of his work in planetary dynamics and for co-founding the

B612 Foundation The B612 Foundation is a private nonprofit foundation headquartered in Mill Valley, California, United States, dedicated to planetary science and planetary defense against asteroids and other near-Earth object (NEO) impacts. It is led mainly ...

, which focuses on prevention of asteroid impacts on Earth.

Career

In the Netherlands, Hut did a double PhD program, at Utrecht University, in particle physics under

Martinus Veltman Martinus Justinus Godefriedus "Tini" Veltman (; 27 June 1931 – 4 January 2021) was a Dutch theoretical physicist. He shared the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics with his former PhD student Gerardus 't Hooft for their work on particle theory. Bio ...

and in Amsterdam in astrophysics under Ed van den Heuvel, resulting in a PhD at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...

. Previously an assistant professor at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, Hut was in 1985, at the age of 32, appointed as a full professor at the Institute for Advanced Study. At the time, he was the youngest professor appointed there. Hut became a corresponding member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (, KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam. In addition to various advisory a ...

in 1996.

Astrophysics research

An accomplished astrophysicist, Hut is best known for the

Barnes–Hut simulation The Barnes–Hut simulation (named after Joshua Barnes and Piet Hut) is an approximation algorithm for performing an N-body simulation. It is notable for having Big O notation, order O(''n'' log ''n'') compared to a direct-sum algorithm ...

algorithm, developed with Joshua Barnes. By using a tree-based data structure, the Barnes–Hut method significantly speeds up the calculation of the gravitational motion of large numbers of stars, making accessible such problems as collisions between galaxies.

algorithm, which has become a standard in

n-body problem In physics, the -body problem is the problem of predicting the individual motions of a group of astronomical object, celestial objects interacting with each other gravitationally.Leimanis and Minorsky: Our interest is with Leimanis, who first d ...

s, reduces its complexity to N log N. In 1986, while at the

Institute for Advanced Studies The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

, he conceived NEMO, software environment for stellar dynamics, together with Josh Barnes and Peter Teuben. Hut introduced the concept of pseudo-synchronicity, which is now widely cited in the literature on tidal evolution of

exoplanets An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first detec ...

. He co-authored a graduate textbook ''The Gravitational Million Body Problem'', invented a mathematical sequence called Piet Hut's "coat-hanger" sequence, and has pioneered the use of virtual worlds for research and education in (astro)physics. Hut is one of the founders of the

, MODEST, MICA, ACS, the GRAPE (Gravity Pipe) project, and AMUSE.

Interdisciplinary research

Hut's broadly interdisciplinary research started with his study of an asteroid impact to explain the demise of the dinosaurs, when he edited a review article for Nature with four paleontologists, two geologists and one other astrophysicist. He has also widely engaged in joint research with computer scientists and philosophers and cognitive psychologists. In recognition of his work, he was invited to participate in various conferences, spanning a range from a workshop with the

14th Dalai Lama The 14th Dalai Lama (born 6 July 1935; full spiritual name: Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, shortened as Tenzin Gyatso; ) is the incumbent Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism. He served a ...

and five physicists in

Dharamsala Dharamshala (, ; also spelled Dharamsala) is a town in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It serves as the winter capital of the state and the administrative headquarters of the Kangra district since 1855. The town also hosts the Tibetan ...

, India to the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...

in Davos, Switzerland, and he has been invited as a member of the

Husserl Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (; 8 April 1859 – 27 April 1938) was an Austrian-German philosopher and mathematician who established the school of phenomenology. In his early work, he elaborated critiques of historicism and of psychologism in ...

Circle. Hut is one of the founders of the

Kira Institute The Kira Institute is a non-profit organization. It was founded in 1997 to encourage open inquiry concerning the nature of scientific knowledge and its relation to other perspectives drawn from a wide variety of fields. The founders were Piet H ...

Employment controversy

In July, 2000, IAS sued Hut in federal district court, seeking to enforce a 1996 agreement in which Hut had promised to resign by mid-2001. According to IAS Director

Phillip Griffiths Phillip Augustus Griffiths IV (born October 18, 1938) is an American mathematician, known for his work in the field of geometry, and in particular for the complex manifold approach to algebraic geometry. He is a major developer in particular ...

, Hut had been hired in expectation of his eventually succeeding professor John N. Bahcall as leader of the astrophysics group, but "was not performing" at the required level. Hut's rebuttal was first, that his work was not inferior but only (to some eyes) unfashionable, and second, that he had been coerced into signing any agreement. Many prominent astrophysicists defended the quality of Hut's work, while others based their support on the importance of academic tenure to creative scholarship. The case was eventually settled out of court, with Hut transferring out of IAS's School of Natural Sciences while being appointed Head of a new Program in Interdisciplinary Studies.Robin Wilson
"The Professor Who Would Not Leave"
The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 24, 2000. (Subscription required to read full article)

References

External links