Simon White facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Simon David Manton White
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Simon White speaking at the 2012 National Astronomy Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society
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| Born | 30 September 1951 |
| Alma mater | Jesus College, Cambridge University of Toronto |
| Known for | Cosmological structure formation |
| Spouse(s) | Guinevere Kauffmann |
| Awards | Helen B. Warner Prize (1986) Heineman Prize (2005) Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (2006) Brouwer Award (2008) Max Born Prize (2010) Shaw Prize (2017) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astrophysics and cosmology |
| Institutions | University of California, Berkeley University of Arizona University of Cambridge Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics |
| Thesis | The Clustering of Galaxies (1977) |
| Doctoral advisor | Donald Lynden-Bell |
Simon David Manton White, born on September 30, 1951, is a British-German astrophysicist. He studies space and how the universe works. Before he retired in 2019, he was a director at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics.
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Early Life and Education
Simon White studied mathematics at Cambridge University in England. He earned his first degree in 1972. Later, he studied Astronomy at the University of Toronto in Canada. In 1977, he received his doctorate (PhD) in Astronomy. His research was about "The Clustering of Galaxies." He completed this work at Cambridge University.
After finishing his studies, Simon White worked at several universities. These included the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Arizona. In 1994, he became a director at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics. This institute is located in Garching, Germany. He also held guest professor roles at other universities. These included the University of Durham and the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. He also taught in China, at observatories in Shanghai and Beijing. Simon White lives in Munich with his wife, Guinevere Kauffmann. She is also an astrophysicist. They have one son. In 2016, he became a German citizen.
Discoveries About the Universe
Simon White has mostly focused on how structures in the Universe form. He is well-known for helping us understand how galaxys are made. He also helped show that the current main model for how the universe grew, called the ΛCDM model, works.
Dark Matter and Galaxy Formation
Early in his career, he studied how Dark Matter affects the growth of structures. In 1978, he and Martin Rees suggested an idea. They thought that galaxies form when gas gathers in the middle of large dark matter clouds. These clouds grow bigger by pulling in more matter. This idea has been key to understanding how galaxies form ever since.
Simulating the Cosmos
Later, Simon White created computer models. These models could simulate how galaxies grow and cluster together. This allowed scientists to compare their theories with real observations. In 1983, he worked with Marc Davis and Carlos Frenk. They showed that dark matter could not be made of massive neutrinos. At that time, neutrinos were the only known particles considered for dark matter.
Their work with George Efstathiou was very important. It showed that a universe mostly made of Cold Dark Matter could create the large-scale structures we see. Cold Dark Matter is a new type of particle that scientists are still trying to find.
The Millennium Simulation
A big project he worked on was the Millennium Simulation in 2005. This was done in Garching, Germany. It was the largest N-body simulation ever done at that time. It used 10 billion particles to represent dark matter. It also showed how over 20 million galaxies formed and changed. This simulation covered a huge area, more than 2 billion light-years across.
Dark Halos and Galaxy Clusters
White's work also looked at how stars move inside galaxies. He studied the detailed structure of galaxies and their dark matter halos. He researched how galaxies form and how galaxy clusters grow. He also studied how elliptical galaxies form when other galaxies merge.
He worked with Julio Navarro and Carlos Frenk on the "universal" structure of dark matter halos. The Navarro–Frenk–White profile is named after them. Their papers from 1996 and 1997 are very important. They showed that the size and density of dark matter halos are linked to their mass. This link helps scientists measure important things about our universe. For example, it helps measure how much matter is in the universe. It also helps understand the early conditions that led to all cosmic structures.
Simon White has published over 500 scientific papers. Other scientists have cited his work more than 281,000 times. This shows how much his research has influenced the field.
Awards and Recognition
Simon White has received many awards for his work.
- Helen B. Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society, 1986
- Editor of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1992–present
- Fellow of the Royal Society, 1997
- Max-Planck Research Prize for International Cooperation, 2000
- Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics of the AIP/AAS, 2005 (with George Efstathiou)
- Fellow of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina, 2005
- Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2006
- Honorary Doctorate (D.Sc.) at the University of Durham, 2007
- Foreign Associate, US National Academy of Sciences, 2007
- Brouwer Award (Division on Dynamical Astronomy) of the American Astronomical Society, 2008
- European Latsis Prize 2008: Astrophysics
- Fellow of the Academia Europaea, 2009
- Max Born Prize of the German Physical Society and the Institute of Physics, 2010
- Honorary Citizen of the City of Padova, 2010
- Gruber Prize in Cosmology 2011 (with Marc Davis, George Efstathiou and Carlos Frenk)
- Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2015
- Shaw Prize 2017 in Astronomy
- Clarivate Citation Laureate in Physics 2020
