Ruth Ann Watson Gregory is a British mathematician and

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

, currently Head of Department of Physics and Professor of Theoretical Physics at King's College London.News Centre
King's College London, University of London. Retrieved 03 February 2021. Her fields of specialisation are

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 ...

and

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's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...

.Ruth Gregory
TED^xCLE. Retrieved 2016-02-28.

Education

Gregory earned her PhD from 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, ...

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

in 1988, writing a thesis on "

topological defect A topological soliton occurs when two adjoining structures or spaces are in some way "out of phase" with each other in ways that make a seamless transition between them impossible. One of the simplest and most commonplace examples of a topological ...

s in cosmology" supervised by John M. Stewart.

Career

Gregory held postdoctoral appointments at the

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located just outside Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics. Since 2007, Fermilab has been operat ...

and Fermi Institute in the University of Chicago, before returning to Cambridge for a five-year research fellowship. She was appointed Professor of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Durham in 2005. Gregory held this post until her appointment as Head of Department of Physics and Professor of Theoretical Physics at King's College London in 2021. She is a visiting fellow at the

Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI, Perimeter, PITP) is an independent research centre in foundational theoretical physics located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1999. The institute's founding and major benefactor i ...

where she lectures as part of the PSI's master's programme. She serves as a managing editor of

International Journal of Modern Physics D The ''International Journal of Modern Physics'' is a series of Physics journals published by World Scientific. ''International Journal of Modern Physics A'' The ''International Journal of Modern Physics A'' was established in 1986, and covers s ...

Research

Her research centres on the intersection of fundamental

high energy physics Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of Elementary particle, fundamental particles and fundamental interaction, forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standa ...

and

. She is best known for the Gregory–Laflamme instability, describing an instability of black strings in higher dimensions.Ruth Gregory
Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology. Retrieved 28 February 2016.

Awards and honours

Gregory was given the 2006

Maxwell Medal and Prize The Institute of Physics awards numerous prizes to acknowledge contributions to physics research, education and applications. It also offers smaller specific subject-group prizes, such as for PhD thesis submissions. Bilateral awards * The Max ...

by the

Institute of Physics The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, research and application. It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide membership of over 20,000. The IOP is the Physic ...

''for her contributions to physics at the interface of general relativity and string theory, in particular for her work on the physics of cosmic strings and black holes''. In 2011 she received the

Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award The Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award was an award made by the Royal Society from 2000 to 2020. It was administered by the Royal Society and jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the UK Office of Science and Technology, to provide ...

to study ''Time and Extra Dimensions in Space''.Royal Society announces latest round of prestigious Wolfson Research Merit Awards
The Royal Society. Retrieved 28 February 2016.

Selected publications

*. *. *. *. *. *.

References

External links

Professor Ruth Gregory – profile at The Royal Society website.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gregory, Ruth Living people British women mathematicians British physicists Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Academics of Durham University 20th-century British mathematicians 21st-century British mathematicians Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holders 20th-century women mathematicians 21st-century women mathematicians Year of birth missing (living people)