Simon David Manton White (born 30 September 1951),
FRS, is a British astrophysicist. He was one of directors at the
Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics
The Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) is a research institute located in Garching, just north of Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It is one of many scientific research institutes belonging to the Max Planck Society.
The MPA is widely conside ...
before his retirement in late 2019.
Life
White studied
Mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
at
Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...
in
the 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 ...
(B.A. 1972) and
Astronomy
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...
at the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
(MSc 1974). In 1977 he obtained a doctorate in Astronomy under
Donald Lynden-Bell
Donald Lynden-Bell CBE FRS (5 April 1935 – 6 February 2018) was a British theoretical astrophysicist. He was the first to determine that galaxies contain supermassive black holes at their centres, and that such black holes power quasars. ...
entitled "The Clustering of Galaxies" at the
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 ...
. After a few years at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, the
Steward Observatory
Steward Observatory is the research arm of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Arizona (UArizona). Its offices are located on the UArizona campus in Tucson, Arizona (US). Established in 1916, the first telescope and building were f ...
of the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory.
T ...
and
the University of Cambridge he was appointed in 1994 as a Scientific Member of the
Max Planck Society
The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (german: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. V.; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. ...
and as Director of the
Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics
The Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) is a research institute located in Garching, just north of Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It is one of many scientific research institutes belonging to the Max Planck Society.
The MPA is widely conside ...
in
Garching
Garching bei München (''Garching near Munich'') or Garching is a town in Bavaria, Germany, near Munich. It is the home of several research institutes and university departments on its campus. It became a city on 14 September 1990.
Location
The ...
. White is also Research Professor at the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory.
T ...
(1992), Guest Professor at the
University of Durham
Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charte ...
(1995) Honorary Professor at the
Ludwig-Maximilians University
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...
in Munich (1994) and at the Astronomical Observatories of Shanghai (
SHAO Shao (; Cantonese Romanisation: Shiu; Gwoyeu Romatzyh: Shaw) is a common Chinese family name. It is the 86th most populous family name in China. It corresponds to last name So in Korean; "Thiệu" or "Thiều" in Vietnamese; “Zau” in Wu Chines ...
) (1999) and Beijing (BAO) (2001). White lives in
Munich with his wife, the astrophysicist
Guinevere Kauffmann, and their son Jonathan.
Work
White has worked primarily on the formation of structure in the Universe. He is known for his contributions
to our understanding of galaxy formation and for his role in helping to establish the viability of the
current standard model for the evolution of cosmic structure, the so-called
ΛCDM model
The ΛCDM (Lambda cold dark matter) or Lambda-CDM model is a Parameter#Modelization, parameterization of the Big Bang physical cosmology, cosmological model in which the universe contains three major components: first, a cosmological constant de ...
.
Already at the time of his doctoral work he studied the influence of
Dark Matter
Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe. Dark matter is called "dark" because it does not appear to interact with the electromagnetic field, which means it does not ab ...
on the growth of structure and in 1978 he and
Martin Rees
Martin John Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: (born 23 June 1942) is a British cosmologist and astrophysicist. He is the fifteenth Astronomer Royal, ...
argued that the properties of galaxies can be understood if they
form by condensation of gas at the centres of extended and hierarchically clustering dark matter halos.
In later years White developed computer models which allowed the growth of galaxies and galaxy clustering to
be simulated directly in order to allow quantitative comparison of theoretical models with astronomical
observations. His work with
Marc Davis,
George Efstathiou
George Petros Efstathiou (; born 2 September 1955) is a British astrophysicist who is Professor of Astrophysics (1909) at the University of Cambridge and was the first Director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmology at the University of Cambr ...
and
Carlos Frenk
Carlos Silvestre Frenk (born 27 October 1951) is a Mexican-British cosmologist and the Ogden Professor of Fundamental Physics at Durham University.University of Durham Department of PhysicsResearch in the Department: Status and Outlook March ...
was particularly
influential in establishing that a universe dominated by Cold Dark Matter could produce large-scale structure
in the galaxy distribution which closely resembles that observed. A more recent large project was
the
Millennium Simulation, carried out in Garching in 2005 as part of the work of a large international
collaboration, the
Virgo Consortium
The Virgo Consortium was founded in 1994 for '' Cosmological Supercomputer Simulations'' in response to the UK's High Performance Computing Initiative. Virgo developed rapidly into an international collaboration between a dozen scientists in the U ...
. This simulation followed the formation of more than 2,000,000
galaxies throughout a cubic region more than 2 billion light-years on a side.
Work by White has addressed issues of stellar dynamics, of the detailed structure
of galaxies and their dark halos, of the processes controlling galaxy formation, of the structure and evolution of galaxy clusters, and of the statistics of galaxy clustering. Papers include
those with
Julio Navarro and
Carlos Frenk
Carlos Silvestre Frenk (born 27 October 1951) is a Mexican-British cosmologist and the Ogden Professor of Fundamental Physics at Durham University.University of Durham Department of PhysicsResearch in the Department: Status and Outlook March ...
on the "universal" structure of dark matter halos. The
Navarro–Frenk–White profile
The Navarro–Frenk–White (NFW) profile is a spatial mass distribution of dark matter fitted to dark matter halos identified in N-body simulations by Julio Navarro, Carlos Frenk and Simon White. The NFW profile is one of the most commonly used ...
is named after them.
White's more than 500 publications in the refereed professional literature have been cited more than 244,000 times by other scientists (status end-2022 according to
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes p ...
).
Awards and honours
*
Helen B. Warner Prize
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 American Astronomical Society, 1986
* Editor of
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
''Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society'' (MNRAS) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research in astronomy and astrophysics. It has been in continuous existence since 1827 and publishes letters and papers reporting orig ...
, 1992–present
* Fellow of the
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 ...
, 1997
* Max-Planck Research Prize for International Cooperation, 2000
*
Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics
The Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics is jointly awarded each year by the American Astronomical Society and American Institute of Physics for outstanding work in astrophysics. It is funded by the Heineman Foundation in honour of Dannie Heinem ...
of the AIP/AAS, 2005 (with
George Efstathiou
George Petros Efstathiou (; born 2 September 1955) is a British astrophysicist who is Professor of Astrophysics (1909) at the University of Cambridge and was the first Director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmology at the University of Cambr ...
)
* Fellow of the
Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina
The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (german: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded ...
, 2005
*
Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
The Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society is the highest award given by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS). The RAS Council have "complete freedom as to the grounds on which it is awarded" and it can be awarded for any reason. Past awar ...
, 2006
* Honorary Doctorate (D.Sc.) at the
University of Durham
Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charte ...
, 2007
* Foreign Associate, US
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
, 2007
*
Brouwer Award (Division on Dynamical Astronomy)
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 American Astronomical Society, 2008
*
European Latsis Prize The European Latsis Prize is awarded annually by the European Science Foundation for "outstanding and innovative contributions in a selected field of European research". The prize is worth 100,000 Swiss francs and is awarded within a different dis ...
2008: Astrophysics
* Fellow of the
Academia Europaea
The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences.
The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...
, 2009
*
Max Born Prize
The Max Born Medal and Prize is a scientific prize awarded yearly by the German Physical Society (DPG) and the British Institute of Physics (IOP) in memory of the German physicist Max Born, who was a German-Jewish physicist, instrumental in th ...
of the German Physical Society and the Institute of Physics, 2010
* Honorary Citizen of the City of Padova, 2010
*
Gruber Prize in Cosmology
The Gruber Prize in Cosmology, established in 2000, is one of three prestigious international awards worth US$500,000 made by the Gruber Foundation, a non-profit organization based at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Since 2001, the G ...
2011 (with
Marc Davis,
George Efstathiou
George Petros Efstathiou (; born 2 September 1955) is a British astrophysicist who is Professor of Astrophysics (1909) at the University of Cambridge and was the first Director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmology at the University of Cambr ...
and
Carlos Frenk
Carlos Silvestre Frenk (born 27 October 1951) is a Mexican-British cosmologist and the Ogden Professor of Fundamental Physics at Durham University.University of Durham Department of PhysicsResearch in the Department: Status and Outlook March ...
)
* Foreign Member of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republ ...
, 2015
*
Shaw Prize
The Shaw Prize is an annual award presented by the Shaw Prize Foundation. Established in 2002 in Hong Kong, it honours "individuals who are currently active in their respective fields and who have recently achieved distinguished and signifi ...
2017 in Astronomy
*
Clarivate Citation Laureate
Clarivate Citation Laureates formerly Thomson Reuters Citation Laureates is a list of candidates considered likely to win the Nobel Prize in their respective field. The candidates are so named based on the citation impact of their published resear ...
in Physics 2020
References
External links
Simon White site''from October 2011''
{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Simon
20th-century British astronomers
1951 births
Living people
Recipients of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
People from Ashford, Kent
Fellows of the Royal Society
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Winners of the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics
21st-century British astronomers
Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge
Max Planck Institute directors