Saul Arno Teukolsky (born August 2, 1947, Johannesburg, South Africa) is a theoretical astrophysicist and a professor of

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

and

Astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...

and

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. His major research interests include general relativity, relativistic astrophysics, and computational astrophysics.

Biography

After matriculating from Selborne College (East London, South Africa) in 1964, Teukolsky received a Bachelor of Science in Honors Physics and Honors Applied Mathematics from the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The universit ...

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 ...

in 1970. He went on to be a graduate student under Kip Thorne at

where he received his Ph.D. in 1973. He joined

as an Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy in 1974 after serving as the Richard Chace Tolman Research Fellow for one year at

. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1977 and Full Professor in 1983. In 1999 he was named the Hans A. Bethe professor of physics and astrophysics, a position which he still holds. In 2017 he was also appointed as Robinson Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics at

. Teukolsky is one of the pioneers of

numerical relativity Numerical relativity is one of the branches of general relativity that uses numerical methods and algorithms to solve and analyze problems. To this end, supercomputers are often employed to study black holes, gravitational waves, neutron stars a ...

: the subject that deals with equations involving

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of grav ...

using supercomputers. He is a coauthor of the

Numerical Recipes ''Numerical Recipes'' is the generic title of a series of books on algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of Rigour#Mathematics, mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a cla ...

series of books on scientific computing. Today his research group works on numerical relativity calculations to predict signals from the

LIGO The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is a large-scale physics experiment and observatory designed to detect cosmic gravitational waves and to develop gravitational-wave observations as an astronomical tool. Prior to LIG ...

and

LISA Lisa or LISA may refer to: People People with the mononym * Lisa (Japanese musician, born 1974), stylized "LISA" * Lisa, stagename of Japanese singer Lisa Komine (born 1978) * Lisa (South Korean singer) (born 1980) * Lisa (Japanese musician, b ...

experiments.

Awards

* Alfred P. Sloan Fellow, 1973 * John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, 1981 * Forefronts of Large-Scale Computing Award, 1990 * Fellow of the American Physical Society, 1994 * Fellow of the American Astronomical Society. * Member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1996 * Member of National Academy of Sciences, 2003 * Dirac Medal of the ICTP, 2021 * Einstein prize of APS (joint with Clifford Will), 2021.

References

External links

Astronomy Homepage at Cornell Univ.

Physics Homepage at Cornell Univ.

Interview of Saul Teukolsky by David Zierler on February 4, 2021, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD USA, www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/47201
Living people 1947 births 21st-century American physicists American relativity theorists Cornell University faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 20th-century South African physicists Alumni of Selborne College {{US-physicist-stub