Tony Rothman (born 1953) is an American theoretical

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 ...

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

and writer.

Early life

Tony is the son of physicist and science fiction writer Milton A. Rothman and psychotherapist Doris W. Rothman. He holds a B.A. from Swarthmore College, (1975) and a PhD from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...

(1981), where he studied at the Center for Relativity. He continued on post-doctoral fellowships at

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

and the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

Career

Rothman worked briefly as an editor at ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it ...

'', then taught at Harvard,

Illinois Wesleyan University Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockford ...

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United ...

and from 2005 to 2013 at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

. In January 2016 he joined the faculty of NYU Polytech, now known as the Tandon School of Engineering and retired from teaching there in 2019. Rothman's scientific research has been concerned mainly with general relativity 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 ...

, for which he has made contributions to the study of the early universe, specifically cosmic nucleosynthesis, black holes, inflationary cosmology and gravitons. Rothman was the scientific editor for

Andrei Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov ( rus, Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ˈdmʲitrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, nobel laureate and activist for n ...

's ''Memoirs'' and he has contributed to numerous magazines, including ''

,'' ''

Discover Discover may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''Discover'' (album), a Cactus Jack album * ''Discover'' (magazine), an American science magazine Businesses and brands * DISCover, the ''Digital Interactive Systems Corporation'' * D ...

,'' '' American Scientist'', ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...

'' and ''

History Today ''History Today'' is an illustrated history magazine. Published monthly in London since January 1951, it presents serious and authoritative history to as wide a public as possible. The magazine covers all periods and geographical regions and pub ...

.'' He has played oboe at a professional level and commissioned a concerto from

Alexander Raskatov Alexander Mikhailovich Raskatov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Раска́тов; born 9 March 1953, in Moscow) is a Russian composer. Life Alexander Raskatovs father was a leading journalist of the magazine ''Krokodil'', ...

Selected works

Tony Rothman's first book, written just after graduating college, was '' The World is Round'' (Ballantine, 1978), a science fiction novel about the evolution of society on a non-earthlike planet. His experiences in Russia resulted in publication of a collection of short stories entitled ''Censored Tales'' (1989). He has also published six books of popular science and science history. His collection ''A Physicist on Madison Avenue'' (1991) was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, while ''Doubt and Certainty'', with

George Sudarshan Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan (also known as E. C. G. Sudarshan; 16 September 1931 – 13 May 2018) was an Indian American theoretical physicist and a professor at the University of Texas. Sudarshan has been credited with numerous contrib ...

, was chosen by the A-List as one of the 200 best books of 1998. He co-authored ''Sacred Mathematics: Japanese Temple Geometry'' with Fukagawa Hidetoshi. Published in 2008, this was the first history of

sangaku Sangaku or San Gaku ( ja, 算額, lit=calculation tablet) are Japanese geometrical problems or theorems on wooden tablets which were placed as offerings at Shinto shrines or Buddhist temples during the Edo period by members of all social classes ...

in English, and won the Association of American Publisher's 2008 PROSE award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence in mathematics. His play ''The Magician and the Fool'', about Pushkin and Galois, won the 1981 Oxford Experimental Theatre Club competition, and his play ''The Sand Reckoner'', about Archimedes, received a staged reading at Harvard in 1995. He has also written five other plays, on mathematical and musical subjects. Rothman's published writings encompass hundreds of works in 7 languages and include 3,073 library holdings. WorldCat Identities Rothman, Tony
/ref> * 2022 — ''A Little Book about the Big Bang'' * 2016 — ''Physics Mastery'' * 2015 — ''The Course of Fortune'' * 2015 — ''Firebird'' * 2008 — '' Sacred Mathematics: Japanese Temple Geometry'' (with Hidetoshi Fukagawa) * 2003 — ''Everything's relative: and other fables from science and technology'' * 1998 — ''Doubt and certainty: the celebrated academy'' (with E.C.G. Sudarshan) * 1995 — '' Instant physics: from Aristotle to Einstein, and beyond '' * 1991 — ''A physicist on Madison Avenue'' * 1989 — ''Science à la mode: physical fashions and fictions'' * 1989 — ''Censored tales'' * 1985 — ''Frontiers of modern physics: new perspectives on cosmology, relativity, black holes, and extraterrestrial intelligence'' * 1978 — ''The World is Round''

Notes

External links

Tony Rothman's home page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rothman, Tony 20th-century American novelists American male novelists American science fiction writers 1953 births Living people Swarthmore College alumni University of Texas at Austin alumni University of Cape Town alumni Harvard University faculty Princeton University faculty Bryn Mawr College faculty Illinois Wesleyan University faculty American male short story writers 20th-century American short story writers Polytechnic Institute of New York University faculty 20th-century American male writers Novelists from Pennsylvania Novelists from New Jersey Novelists from Illinois Novelists from Massachusetts Novelists from New York (state)