The Tomalla Foundation for Gravity Research promotes research into

gravity In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

and in the world. It was founded in 1982 according to testamentary wishes of Dr. Walter Tomalla, an engineer from

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

, Switzerland. Every third year, the foundation awards prizes for exceptional research in gravitation and/or

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 ...

, and funds research fellows and visitors for gravity research at Swiss universities.

Tomalla Prize laureates

List of Tomalla prize laureates: ;2016 :

Kip Thorne Kip Stephen Thorne (born June 1, 1940) is an American theoretical physicist and writer known for his contributions in gravitational physics and astrophysics. Along with Rainer Weiss and Barry C. Barish, he was awarded the 2017 Nobel Pri ...

;2013 :

Scott Tremaine Scott Duncan Tremaine (born 1950) is a Canadian-born astrophysicist. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of London, the Royal Society of Canada and the National Academy of Sciences. Tremaine is widely regarded as one of the world's leading ast ...

- for his contribution to gravitational dynamics. ;2009 :

Viatcheslav Mukhanov Viatcheslav Fyodorovich Mukhanov (; born October 2, 1956) is a Soviet/Russian born German theoretical physicist and cosmologist. He is best known for the theory of Quantum Origin of the Universe Structure. Working in 1980-1981 with Gennady Chib ...

- for his contributions to

inflationary cosmology In physical cosmology, cosmic inflation, cosmological inflation, or just inflation, is a theory of exponential expansion of space in the very early universe. Following the inflationary period, the universe continued to expand, but at a slower r ...

and especially for the determination of the density perturbation spectrum from

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the average price of goods and services in terms of money. This increase is measured using a price index, typically a consumer price index (CPI). When the general price level rises, each unit of curre ...

. :

Alexei Starobinsky Alexei Alexandrovich Starobinsky (; 19 April 1948 – 21 December 2023) was a Soviet and Russian-Jewish theoretical physicist and cosmologist. He was a pioneer of the theory of cosmic inflation, for which he received the 2014 Kavli Prize in ...

- for his pioneering contributions to inflationary cosmology and especially for the determination of the spectrum of

gravitational waves Gravitational waves are oscillations of the gravitational field that travel through space at the speed of light; they are generated by the relative motion of gravitating masses. They were proposed by Oliver Heaviside in 1893 and then later by H ...

generated during inflation. ;2008 :

Demetrios Christodoulou Demetrios Christodoulou (; born 19 October 1951) is a Greek mathematician and physicist, who first became well known for his proof, together with Sergiu Klainerman, of the nonlinear stability of the Minkowski spacetime of special relativity in th ...

;2003 :

Jim Peebles Phillip James Edwin Peebles (born April 25, 1935) is a Canadian- American astrophysicist, astronomer, and theoretical cosmologist who was Albert Einstein Professor in Science, emeritus, at Princeton University. He is widely regarded as one ...

;2000 :

Gustav Tammann Gustav Andreas Tammann (24 July 1932 – 6 January 2019) was a Swiss astronomer and academic. He served as director of the Astronomical Institute of the University of Basel; as a member of the European Space Agency Space Telescope Advisory Team, ...

- for his efforts in measuring the expansion rate of the universe and especially for his pioneering work using

Supernovae A supernova (: supernovae or supernovas) is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. A supernova occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star, or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion. The original ob ...

as standard candles. ;1996 :

Werner Israel Werner Israel, (October 4, 1931 – May 18, 2022) was a theoretical physicist known for his contributions to gravitational theory, and especially to the understanding of black holes. Biography Israel was born in Berlin, Germany in 1931. H ...

;1993 :

Allan Sandage Allan Rex Sandage (June 18, 1926 – November 13, 2010) was an American astronomer. He was Staff Member Emeritus with the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California. He determined the first reasonably accurate values for the Hubble const ...

;1987 : Joseph Hooton Taylor, Jr. ;1984 :

Andrei Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet Physics, physicist and a List of Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, which he was awarded in 1975 for emphasizing human rights around the world. Alt ...

- for his fundamental contribution to the problem of the matter - antimatter asymmetry in the Universe and his new ideas on gravity at a fundamental level ( induced gravity). ;1981 :

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (; 19 October 1910 – 21 August 1995) was an Indian Americans, Indian-American theoretical physicist who made significant contributions to the scientific knowledge about the structure of stars, stellar evolution and ...

External links

The Tomalla Foundation for Gravity Research

References

Foundations based in Switzerland {{switzerland-stub

Tomalla Prize laureates

External links

See also

References