Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov
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Igor Novikov (right) with Kip Thorne
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| Born | November 10, 1935 |
| Nationality | Russian Soviet (formerly) |
| Occupation | Theoretical astrophysicist and Cosmologist |
Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov (Russian: И́горь Дми́триевич Но́виков; born November 10, 1935) is a well-known Russian scientist. He is a theoretical astrophysicist and cosmologist. This means he studies the universe and how it works. He looks at things like stars, galaxies, and the very beginning of the universe.
Novikov is famous for some big ideas. In 1964, he suggested the idea of white holes. These are like the opposite of black holes. While black holes pull everything in, white holes would push everything out. He also came up with the Novikov self-consistency principle in the 1980s. This idea helps explain how time travel might work without causing confusing problems or paradoxes.
For a time, Novikov lived in Copenhagen, Denmark. There, he worked and taught at the Niels Bohr Institute, a famous science center. He later returned to Russia in 2001.
A Life in Science
Igor Novikov has spent his life studying the universe. He earned his first advanced science degree, a PhD in astrophysics, in 1965. This is a very high degree that shows deep knowledge in a subject. Later, in 1970, he earned an even higher Russian degree called a D.Sc. in astrophysics.
From 1974 to 1990, he led a special department. This was the Department of Relativistic Astrophysics at the Russian Space Research Institute in Moscow. Before 1991, he also led the Department of Theoretical Astrophysics at the Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow. He was also a professor at Moscow State University.
Since 1994, Novikov has been the director of the Theoretical Astrophysics Center (TAC). This center is part of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. He has also been a professor of astrophysics at the Observatory of the University of Copenhagen since 1991. In 1998, he became a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. This is an honor given to top astronomers and geophysicists.
Awards and Recognition
Igor Novikov has received important awards for his work. In 2020, he won the First John Archibald Wheeler Prize. He shared this award with two other famous physicists. They were Kip Thorne from Caltech and Roger Penrose from Oxford University.
This prize was given to them for their important work. They helped develop the general theory of relativity. This is Albert Einstein's theory about gravity and how space and time are connected. They also contributed a lot to the physics of black holes. The prize was given out by the President of the Italian Physical Society in Rome.
See Also
- Closed timelike curve
- Cosmic microwave background
- Observational cosmology
- Quantum mechanics of time travel
- Primordial black hole
- Superradiance
- White hole
