Roman Ulrich Sexl (19 October 1939 – 10 July 1986) was one of the leading

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

theoretical physicists The following is a partial list of notable theoretical physicists. Arranged by century of birth, then century of death, then year of birth, then year of death, then alphabetically by surname. For explanation of symbols, see Notes at end of this ar ...

. He is famous for his textbooks on

Special relativity In physics, the special theory of relativity, or special relativity for short, is a scientific theory regarding the relationship between space and time. In Albert Einstein's original treatment, the theory is based on two postulates: # The laws o ...

Life

His most cited work is "On the gravitational field of a massless particle" together with Peter C. Aichelburg. Since 1972 he was professor for

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 ...

and

General Relativity 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 ...

at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

, where, from 1969, he was director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics. From 1971 to 1975 he was the director of the Institute for

Space Exploration Space exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. While the exploration of space is carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration though is conducted both by robotic spacec ...

at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In 1980 he received the Robert Wichard-Pohl prize. :de:Robert-Wichard-Pohl-Preis Today there is the annual Roman-Ulrich-Sexl-Prize for extraordinary achievements in teaching

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its 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 which r ...

Publications

* ''Relativity'' (1972) * ''Gravitation and Cosmology'' (1975) * ''Relativity, Groups and Particles'' (1975) *

References

External links

* 1939 births 1986 deaths Austrian physicists Cosmologists Scientists from Vienna University of Vienna alumni Academic staff of the University of Vienna {{physicist-stub