Piet Hut
Piet Hut ( born September 26, 1952 in Utrecht) is a Dutch astrophysicist. He is a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS).
Hat studied at Utrecht University ( where he studied with Martinus Veltman particle ) with the completion in 1977 and in 1981 received his doctorate at the University of Amsterdam with Ed van den Heuvel, where he worked at the Institute of Astronomy in 1978. In 1984 he became assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and in 1985 he became a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study.
He is known primarily for numerical simulations in astrophysics, as one of the developers of the Barnes-Hut algorithm (1986 with Joshua Barnes ), which enabled the simulation of the gravitational interaction of star clusters on the computer considerably accelerated and, for example, the simulation of galaxy collisions. He is involved in several supercomputer projects for astrophysical simulations, including the GRAPE project at the University of Tokyo.
In 2002 he founded with Ed Lu, Rusty Schweickart and others, the B612 Foundation, an association of scientists, the measures to avert a possible strike of asteroids on Earth to plan. Research on the impact of the asteroid, which contributed to the extinction of the dinosaurs at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, were his introduction to interdisciplinary research and other interdisciplinary activities. He is a member of the Husserl Circle, participated in workshops by scientists with the Dalai Lama and the World Economic Forum. He is involved in developments in computer visualization and virtual reality in teaching and research, working with computer scientists, cognitive psychologists and philosophers.
1985 to 1987 he was a Sloan Fellow.
In 2000 he was involved in an employment tribunal proceedings with the IAS. The IAS wanted to fire him because his scientific work field did not accord with the Institute Director, who originally appointed him as the future successor of John Bahcall in the line of the Astrophysics Department. Hat received the support of many prominent astrophysicists. The trial ended with a settlement out of court, hat left the School of Natural Sciences and became head of a newly established program for interdisciplinary studies.
He has the American citizenship.
An asteroid was named after him ( 17031 Piethut ).
Writings
- With D. Heggie The Gravitational Million Body Problem: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Star Cluster Dynamics, Cambridge University Press 2003
- Gerald J. Sussman Advanced computing for Science, Scientific American, 1987