Ruth Gregory facts for kids

Ruth Ann Watson Gregory is a British scientist who studies both math and physics. She is currently a top professor at King's College London, where she leads the Physics Department. She is an expert in how gravity works on a very big scale, known as general relativity, and the study of the entire universe, called cosmology.

Becoming a Scientist

Ruth Gregory went to the famous University of Cambridge in England. She earned her PhD, which is a very high university degree, in 1988. For her main project, she studied "topological defects in cosmology." These are like tiny patterns or "flaws" that might have formed in the very early universe. Her teacher for this important work was John M. Stewart.

Her Amazing Career

After finishing her studies, Ruth Gregory worked at big science labs in the United States. She spent time at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) and the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago.

Later, she returned to Cambridge for a special five-year research job. In 2005, she became a professor at the University of Durham. She taught both math and physics there. In 2021, she moved to King's College London to become the Head of the Physics Department.

She also visits the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. There, she gives lectures to students who are studying for their master's degrees in physics. Ruth Gregory also helps manage a science magazine called the International Journal of Modern Physics D.

What She Researches

Ruth Gregory's research focuses on how tiny particles and huge cosmic events connect. She studies high energy physics, which looks at the smallest building blocks of the universe, and cosmology, which studies the universe as a whole.

She is especially known for discovering something called the Gregory–Laflamme instability. This describes how long, thin black strings, which are like black holes but in higher dimensions, can become unstable and break apart.

Awards and Special Honors

Ruth Gregory has received several important awards for her work.

In 2006, she was given the Maxwell Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics. She earned this award for her important discoveries in how general relativity (gravity) and string theory (a theory about tiny vibrating strings) connect. The award also recognized her work on cosmic strings and black holes.

In 2011, she received the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. This award helped her study "Time and Extra Dimensions in Space." This research explores ideas about whether there are more dimensions than the three we normally see, plus time.