George Francis Rayner Ellis,
FRS, Hon.
FRSSAf
The Royal Society of South Africa is a learned society composed of eminent South African scientists and academics. The society was granted its royal charter by King Edward VII in 1908, nearly a century after Capetonians first began to conceive of ...
(born 11 August 1939), is the emeritus distinguished professor of
complex systems
A complex system is a system composed of many components which may interact with each other. Examples of complex systems are Earth's global climate, organisms, the human brain, infrastructure such as power grid, transportation or communication s ...
in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at the
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...
in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
. He co-authored ''
The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'' with
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
physicist
Stephen Hawking, published in 1973, and is considered one of the world's leading theorists in
cosmology
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount (lexicographer), Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in ...
. From 1989 to 1992 he served as president of the
International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation The International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation (ISGRG) is a learned society established in 1971 with the goal to promote research on general relativity (GR) and gravitation. To that end, it encourages communication between relativi ...
. He is a past president of the
International Society for Science and Religion
The International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) is a learned society established in 2001 for the purpose of the promotion of education through the support of inter-disciplinary learning and research in the fields of science and religion c ...
. He is an A-rated researcher with the
NRF.
Ellis, an active
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
, was a vocal opponent of
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
during the
National Party reign in the 1970s and 1980s, and it is during this period that Ellis's research focused on the more philosophical aspects of
cosmology
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount (lexicographer), Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in ...
, for which he won the
Templeton Prize
The Templeton Prize is an annual award granted to a living person, in the estimation of the judges, "whose exemplary achievements advance Sir John Templeton's philanthropic vision: harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest quest ...
in 2004. He was also awarded the
Order of the Star of South Africa
The Order of the Star of South Africa is a South African National Order that consisted of seven decorations in two military and five non-military classes. The order was discontinued on 2 December 2002.
Institution
The Order of the Star of South ...
by
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...
, in 1999. On 18 May 2007, he was elected a
fellow
A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context.
In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements.
Within the context of higher education ...
of the British
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
.
Life
Born in 1939 to George Rayner Ellis, a newspaper editor, and Gwendoline Hilda MacRobert Ellis in Johannesburg, George Francis Rayner Ellis attended the
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...
, where he graduated with honours in 1960 with a Bachelor of Science degree in physics with distinction. He represented the university in fencing, rowing and flying.
While a student at
Cambridge University
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
, where he received a PhD in applied maths and theoretical physics in 1964, he was on college rowing teams.
At Cambridge, Ellis served as a research fellow from 1965 to 1967, was assistant lecturer in the
Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
until 1970, and was then appointed university lecturer, serving until 1974.
Ellis became a visiting professor at the
Enrico Fermi Institute
__NOTOC__
The Institute for Nuclear Studies was founded September 1945 as part of the University of Chicago with Samuel King Allison as director. On November 20, 1955, it was renamed The Enrico Fermi Institute for Nuclear Studies. The name was sh ...
at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
in 1970, a lecturer at the
Cargese Summer School in Corsica in 1971 and the
Erice Summer School in Sicily in 1972, and a visiting H3 professor at the
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...
, also in 1972.
The following year, Ellis co-wrote ''
The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'' with
Stephen Hawking, debuting at a strategic moment in the development of
General Relativity Theory
General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics. G ...
.
In the following year, Ellis returned to South Africa to accept an appointment as professor of applied mathematics at the
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...
, a position he held until his retirement in 2005.
In 2005 Ellis appeared as a guest speaker at the
Nobel Conference
The Nobel Conference is an academic conference held annually at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MinnesotaFounded in 1963 the conference links a general audience with the world's foremost scholars and researchers in conversations centered on ...
in
St. Peter, Minnesota
St. Peter is a city in Nicollet County, Minnesota, United States. It is 10 miles north of the Mankato – North Mankato metropolitan area. The population was 12,066 at the 2020 census. St. Peter is the county seat of Nicollet County and home ...
.
Work
George Ellis has worked for many decades on
anisotropic
Anisotropy () is the property of a material which allows it to change or assume different properties in different directions, as opposed to isotropy. It can be defined as a difference, when measured along different axes, in a material's physic ...
cosmologies (
Bianchi models) and
inhomogeneous universes, and on the philosophy of cosmology. He is currently writing on the emergence of complexity, and the way this is enabled by top-down causation in the hierarchy of complexity. Recently Ellis has also collaborated with
Teppo Felin
Teppo Felin (born 1970s) is the Douglas D. Anderson Professor of Strategy & Entrepreneurship at the Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. He is also the Founding Director of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Study. From 2013 to 2 ...
,
Denis Noble
Denis Noble (born 16 November 1936) is a British biologist who held the Burdon Sanderson Chair of Cardiovascular Physiology at the University of Oxford from 1984 to 2004 and was appointed Professor Emeritus and co-Director of Computational Phy ...
, and
Jan Koenderink
Jan Johan Koenderink (born 10 February 1943, Stramproy) is a Dutch physicist and psychologist known for his researches on visual perception, computer vision, and geometry.
Koenderink earned a bachelor's degree from Utrecht University in 1964, a m ...
on a set of articles published in the journal ''Genome Biology.
'' In terms of
philosophy of science
Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ultim ...
, Ellis is a
Platonist
Platonism is the philosophy of Plato and school of thought, philosophical systems closely derived from it, though contemporary platonists do not necessarily accept all of the doctrines of Plato. Platonism had a profound effect on Western though ...
.
Publications
Books
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Papers
Ellis has over 500 published articles; including 17 in
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
. Notable papers include:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
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*
Honours
In 2019
Rhodes University
Rhodes University is a public university, public research university located in Makhanda, Eastern Cape, Makhanda (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, ...
in
Grahamstown
Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London, Eastern Cape, East London. Makhanda is the lar ...
announced it would award Ellis an honorary doctorate in laws (LLD, hc)
See also
*
List of science and religion scholars
This is a list of notable individuals who have focused on studying the intersection of religion and science.
A
* S. Alexander
* Gordon W. Allport: noted Behavioural Psychologist & author of ''The Individual and his Religion'' (1951).
* Nathan A ...
Notes and references
External links
Partial list of Ellis' published papersGeorge Ellis's web pageProfessor George Ellis: a man of many parts Cape Argus
The ''Cape Argus'' is a daily newspaper co-founded in 1857 by Saul Solomon and published by Sekunjalo in Cape Town, South Africa. It is commonly referred to as ''The Argus''.
Although not the first English-language newspaper in South Africa ...
, 18 March 2004
George Ellis's scientific work as listed at SPIRES* o
Speaking of Faithwith
Krista Tippett
Krista Tippett ( née Weedman; born November 9, 1960) is an American journalist, author, and entrepreneur. She created and hosts the public radio program and podcast ''On Being''. In 2014, Tippett was awarded the National Humanities Medal by U.S. ...
transcript
George Ellis extended interview with transcript for the 'Why Are We Here?' documentary series
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, George
1939 births
Living people
Alumni of Michaelhouse
South African cosmologists
Fellows of the Royal Society
Members of the International Society for Science and Religion
Philosophers of cosmology
South African Christians
South African mathematicians
South African Quakers
Templeton Prize laureates
University of Cape Town academics
University of Cape Town alumni
Writers about religion and science