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Clifford Martin Will

Clifford Martin Will
Born1946 (age 77–78)
Hamilton, Ontario
Alma materMcMaster University (B.Sc. 1968)
California Institute of Technology (PhD 1971)
Known forPost-Newtonian expansions
AwardsAlbert Einstein Medal (2019)
Scientific career
FieldsGeneral relativity
InstitutionsUniversity of Chicago (1972–1974)
Stanford University (1974–1981)
Washington University in St. Louis (1981–2012)
University of Florida (2012–present)
Thesis Theoretical Frameworks for Testing Relativistic Gravity: Parametrized Post-Newtonian Formalism  (1971)
Academic advisorsKip Thorne

Clifford Martin Will (born 1946) is a Canadian-born theoretical physicist noted for his contributions to general relativity.[1]

Life and work

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Will was born in Hamilton, Ontario. In 1968, he earned a B.Sc. from McMaster University. At Caltech, he studied under Kip Thorne, earning his Ph.D. in 1971.[2][3] He has taught at the University of Chicago and Stanford University, and in 1981 joined the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis. In 2012, he moved to a faculty position at the University of Florida.[1]

Will's theoretical work has centered on post-Newtonian expansions of approximate solutions to the Einstein field equation, a notoriously difficult area which forms the theoretical underpinnings essential for such achievements as the indirect verification by Russell Hulse and Joseph Taylor of the existence of gravitational radiation from observations of a binary pulsar.[1]

Will's book reviewing experimental tests of general relativity is widely regarded as the essential resource for research in this area; his popular book on the same subject was listed by The New York Times as one of the 200 best books published in 1986.[1]

Will was a Guggenheim Fellow for the academic year 1996–1997.[4] From 2009 to 2018, Will was the editor-in-chief of IOP Publishing's journal Classical and Quantum Gravity.[1]

Honors and awards

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He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1989 [5] and elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2007.[1]

In 2019, Will received the Albert Einstein Medal, awarded each year since 1979 by the Albert Einstein Society in Bern, Switzerland, for his "important contributions to General Relativity, in particular including the Post-Newtonian expansions of approximate solutions of the Einstein field equations and their confrontation with experiments."[6]

Bibliographic information

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According to the NASA ADS database, the h-index of Professor Will is 57.

Selected works

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Will, Clifford M. "Autobiographical Sketch – Clifford M. Will". University of Florida. Retrieved August 14, 2019.
  2. ^ Clifford Martin Will at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  3. ^ Will, Clifford M. – CaltechTHESIS
  4. ^ Clifford M. Will – John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Archived 2014-08-08 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ "APS Fellow Archive". APS. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
  6. ^ "Cliff Will wins the 2019 Albert Einstein Medal". Department of Physics, University of Florida. February 20, 2019.
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