Joseph Silk facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Joseph Silk
|
|
|---|---|
| Born | 3 December 1942 London, England
|
| Citizenship | UK United States |
| Alma mater | Clare College, Cambridge< University of Manchester Harvard University |
| Awards | Royal Society Bakerian Medal (2007) Balzan Prize (2011) Gruber Prize in Cosmology (2019) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Cosmology |
| Institutions | Institut d'astrophysique de Paris University of Oxford University of California, Berkeley Johns Hopkins University |
| Doctoral students | Max Tegmark |
Joseph Ivor Silk (born on December 3, 1942) is a famous British-American astrophysicist. An astrophysicist is a scientist who studies space, stars, and the universe.
From 1999 to 2011, he was the Savilian Chair of Astronomy at the University of Oxford in England. This is a very important teaching position. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society, which means he is a top scientist in the UK. In 2011, he won the Balzan Prize for his amazing work on the early universe.
About Joseph Silk
Joseph Silk was born in London, England. He went to Tottenham County School. After that, he studied Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. He also studied astrophysics at the University of Manchester.
He earned his PhD in Astronomy from Harvard University in 1968. A PhD is the highest university degree. In 1970, he started working at the University of California, Berkeley. He became a professor there in 1978.
After almost 30 years in California, Joseph Silk moved back to the UK in 1999. He took up the Savilian Chair of Astronomy at the University of Oxford. He is now a Professor of Physics in Paris, France. He is also a professor at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.
What is Silk Damping?
Joseph Silk is famous for explaining something called Silk damping. This is a process that affects the very first light in the universe. This light is called the Cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB).
Imagine the early universe was like a very hot, thick soup. Sound waves moved through this soup. But the light particles (photons) and matter particles (electrons) were also bumping into each other. This bumping caused the light to spread out. This spreading out is what we call diffusion damping, or Silk damping. It helps scientists understand how the universe grew and formed galaxies.
Awards and Honors
Joseph Silk has received many important awards for his work. These awards show how much his research has helped us understand the universe.
- 1972 and 1974: Sloan Research Fellow
- 1975: Guggenheim Fellow
- 1995: Fellow of the American Physical Society
- 1999: Fellow of the Royal Society
- 2007: Included in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 2008: Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
- 2011: Balzan Prize for his work on the early universe
- 2014: Member of the US National Academy of Sciences
- 2018: Henry Norris Russell Lectureship
- 2019: Gruber Prize in Cosmology with Nicholas Kaiser. They won for their important ideas about how structures like galaxies formed in the universe. They also helped us learn about dark matter.
- 2020: Fellow of the American Astronomical Society
- 2020: Nick Kylafis Lecturer
