Jack Wisdom (born 1953) is a Professor of

Planetary Science Planetary science (or more rarely, planetology) is the scientific study of planets (including Earth), celestial bodies (such as moons, asteroids, comets) and planetary systems (in particular those of the Solar System) and the processes of their f ...

s at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

. He received his B.S. from

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

in 1976 and his Ph.D. from

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

in 1981. His research interests are the dynamics of the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...

. Wisdom pioneered the study of chaos in the solar system. His 1981 dissertation demonstrated for the first time the theoretical reason for the clearing of the

Kirkwood gaps A Kirkwood gap is a gap or dip in the distribution of the semi-major axis, semi-major axes (or equivalently of the orbital periods) of the orbits of asteroid belt, main-belt asteroids. They correspond to the locations of orbital resonances with ...

in the asteroid belt.2001 Brouwer Award Citation
AAS DDA His work has also brought to light the

chaotic Chaotic was originally a Danish trading card game. It expanded to an online game in America which then became a television program based on the game. The program was able to be seen on 4Kids TV (Fox affiliates, nationwide), Jetix, The CW4Kid ...

rotation of Hyperion,

chaos Chaos or CHAOS may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional elements * Chaos (''Kinnikuman'') * Chaos (''Sailor Moon'') * Chaos (''Sesame Park'') * Chaos (''Warhammer'') * Chaos, in ''Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy'' * Cha ...

in the orbital evolution of

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the S ...

, and the chaotic obliquity of

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

which has important implications for the past Martian climate. Work with colleague

Gerald Sussman Gerald Jay Sussman (born February 8, 1947) is the Panasonic Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He received his S.B. and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics from MIT in 1968 and 1973 respectively. He ...

using a specially-built computer demonstrated that the solar system as a whole is chaotic on a timescale of about four million years, confirming results from Jacques Laskar. This work was responsible for "shattering the long-held view of the clockwork motion of the planets." More recently, Wisdom's work has shed light on the complex evolution of the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

and the tidal heating and dynamics of Enceladus. In addition, Wisdom is credited with developing "numerous analytical and numerical techniques" that are fundamental to modern

celestial mechanics Celestial mechanics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the motions of objects in outer space. Historically, celestial mechanics applies principles of physics (classical mechanics) to astronomical objects, such as stars and planets, to ...

, most notably the symplectic map for the

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

(developed together with

Matthew J. Holman Matthew J. Holman (born 1967) is a Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Smithsonian astrophysicist and lecturer at Harvard University. Holman studied at MIT, where he received his bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1989 and his PhD in planetar ...

), which "now forms the core of nearly every solar system dynamics integration scheme in use today." Jack Wisdom is co-author of ''

Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics ''Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics'' (''SICM'') is a classical mechanics textbook written by Gerald Jay Sussman and Jack Wisdom with Meinhard E. Mayer. The first edition was published by MIT Press in 2001, and a second edition ...

''. His 2003 paper in ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

'' on a new

geometric phase In classical and quantum mechanics, geometric phase is a phase difference acquired over the course of a cycle, when a system is subjected to cyclic adiabatic processes, which results from the geometrical properties of the parameter space of the Ha ...

effect which Wisdom calls "spacetime swimming" has attracted considerable attention, although it is not yet clear whether this effect has practical utility or even can be used to devise new tests of relativistic gravitation theories.

Awards and honors

* H. C. Urey Prize of the

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

(1986) *

Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy The Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy is awarded annually by the American Astronomical Society to a young astronomer (aged less than 36, or within 8 years of the award of their PhD) for a significant contribution to observational or theoretical ...

of the AAS (1987) * The asteroid

3402 Wisdom 3402 Wisdom, provisional designation , is a stony asteroid and Mars-crosser on an eccentric orbit from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 5 August 1981, by American astronomer Edward Bowell at ...

was named in his honor (1988) *

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to ...

from the

MacArthur Foundation The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 50 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.0 billion and p ...

(1994) *

Brouwer Award The Brouwer Award is awarded annually by the Division on Dynamical Astronomy of the American Astronomical Society for outstanding lifetime achievement in the field of dynamical astronomy. The prize is named for Dirk Brouwer. Recipients Source ...

of the

Division on Dynamical Astronomy The Division on Dynamical Astronomy (DDA) is a branch of the American Astronomical Society that focuses on the advancement of all aspects of dynamical astronomy, including celestial mechanics, solar system dynamics, stellar dynamics, as well as the ...

of the

(2001) * Elected a Legacy Fellow of the

in 2020.

External links

Wisdom's academic home page
from Chris Van Den Broeck (Astronomy,

University of Wales The University of Wales (Welsh language, Welsh: ''Prifysgol Cymru'') is a confederal university based in Cardiff, Wales. Founded by royal charter in 1893 as a federal university with three constituent colleges – Aberystwyth, Bangor and Cardiff � ...

)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wisdom, Jack 1953 births Living people MacArthur Fellows American astronomers Planetary scientists Rice University alumni California Institute of Technology alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the American Astronomical Society