Thomas W. Baumgarte (born 1966) is a German physicist specializing in the

numerical simulation Computer simulation is the process of mathematical modelling, performed on a computer, which is designed to predict the behaviour of, or the outcome of, a real-world or physical system. The reliability of some mathematical models can be deter ...

compact objects In astronomy, the term compact star (or compact object) refers collectively to white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes. It would grow to include exotic stars if such hypothetical, dense bodies are confirmed to exist. All compact objects ha ...

in general relativity.

Career

Baumgarte completed his BSc in 1992 at

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich 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 ...

and his PhD in 1995 also at

. He worked as a postdoc at

Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

University and University of Illinois and is currently a professor of physics at

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...

. He is the author of over 65 articles about general relativity and astrophysics (for example,

black holes A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can def ...

, neutron stars, and

gravitational collapse Gravitational collapse is the contraction of an astronomical object due to the influence of its own gravity, which tends to draw matter inward toward the center of gravity. Gravitational collapse is a fundamental mechanism for structure formatio ...

). In 2010, along with Stuart L. Shapiro, he published a book on numerical relativity. In 2012, he received the Bessel Prize.

Personal life

Baumgarte is married to Karen Topp, who is also a professor at Bowdoin College.

References

External links

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Baumgarte Homepage at Bowdoin
1966 births Living people 21st-century German physicists Fellows of the American Physical Society {{Germany-physicist-stub