Clifford Martin Will
Clifford Martin Will (* 1946 in Hamilton ( Ontario) ) is a Canadian theoretical physicist who deals with gravitational physics.
Will studied at McMaster University, where he 1968 a bachelor's degree made , and at Caltech, where he received his doctorate in 1971 with Kip Thorne. As a postdoctoral fellow he was a year at Caltech and 1972-1974 Enrico Fermi Fellow at the University of Chicago. In 1974 he became Assistant Professor at Stanford University. In 1981 he became associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis and in 1985 he received a full professorship (from 2005 McDonnel Professor ). 1991 to 1996 and 1997 to 2002 he was Chairman of the Physics Department.
Will dealt with theoretical work on experiments at general relativity (AR ) or gravitational physics, including analysis (using the post- Newtonian approximations to solutions of the AR) of observations by Russell Hulse and Joseph Taylor, which led to the indirect detection of gravitational waves in a double star - pulsar system.
1975 to 1979 he was a Sloan Fellow and 1996/7 Guggenheim Fellow and Fulbright Fellow. In 2007 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Since 2002 he is member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 2004 to 2007 he was president of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation.
His popular science book on experimental gravitation theory " What Einstein right? " Won the 1987 Prize of the American Physical Society for Science Writing and in 1986 was chosen by The New York Times Book Review under the 200 best books of the year.
Writings
- Theory and experiment in gravitational physics. Cambridge University Press, 1981.
- What right Einstein? . Basic Books 1986 German edition. And Einstein was right. Springer 1989.
- What Einstein right? Testing relativity at the centenary. In: Abhay Ashtekar (ed.): 100 years of relativity: Spacetime Structure - Einstein and Beyond. World Scientific, Singapore, 2005. ( Abstract )
- Confrontation in between General Relativity and Experiment. Living Reviews in relativity in 2006. ( Abstract )