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 |
Simon David Manton White
30 September 1951 |
| Alma mater | Jesus College, Cambridge University of Toronto |
| Known for | Cosmological structure formation |
| Spouse(s) | Guinevere Kauffmann |
| Children | 1 |
| Awards | Helen B. Warner Prize (1986) Heineman Prize (2005) Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (2006) Brouwer Award (2008) Max Born Prize (2010) Gruber Cosmology Prize (2011) 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 |
| Doctoral students | Hans-Walter Rix Guinevere Kauffmann Amina Helmi Volker Springel Mark Vogelsberger |
Simon David Manton White (born 30 September 1951) is a famous British-German astrophysicist. He is known for his important work on how the universe's structure formed. Before he retired in late 2019, he was a director at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics.
Contents
Life and Education
Simon White started his studies in mathematics at Jesus College, Cambridge in England. He earned his first degree there in 1972. Later, he studied Astronomy at the University of Toronto in Canada, getting his master's degree in 1974.
Becoming an Astronomer
In 1977, he earned his PhD in Astronomy from the University of Cambridge. His special research project was about "The Clustering of Galaxies." His teacher was Donald Lynden-Bell, another well-known astronomer.
Career Journey
After finishing his studies, Simon White worked at several famous universities. These included the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Arizona in the United States. He also spent time back at the University of Cambridge.
In 1994, he became a director at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, Germany. He also held special professor roles at other universities around the world. These included the University of Durham in the UK and universities in Munich, Shanghai, and Beijing.
Simon White lives in Munich with his wife, Guinevere Kauffmann, who is also an astrophysicist. They have one son. In 2016, he became a German citizen.
Understanding the Universe
Simon White's main work has been about how the universe's large-scale structure came to be. He helped us understand how galaxies form. He also played a big part in showing that the current main model for how the universe evolved, called the Lambda-CDM model, works well.
Dark Matter's Role
Early in his career, he studied how Dark Matter affects the growth of structures in space. In 1978, he and Martin Rees suggested an idea that is still used today. They said that galaxies form when gas gathers at the center of huge "halos" of dark matter. These dark matter halos grow bigger over time by pulling in more matter.
Computer Simulations
Later, Simon White created computer models to simulate how galaxies grow and cluster together. These models allowed scientists to compare their theories with what they observed in space.
His work in 1983 with Marc Davis and Carlos Frenk showed that dark matter could not be made of massive neutrinos. At that time, neutrinos were the only known tiny particles considered for dark matter.
He then worked with George Efstathiou to show that a universe mostly made of "Cold Dark Matter" could create the large-scale patterns of galaxies we see. Cold Dark Matter is a new type of particle that scientists are still trying to find.
The Millennium Simulation
A very big project he worked on was the Millennium Simulation in 2005. This was done in Garching, Germany, by a large international team called the Virgo Consortium. It was the biggest N-body simulation ever done at that time. It used 10 billion tiny particles to represent the dark matter. The simulation showed how more than 20 million galaxies formed and changed over time. This covered a huge area of space, more than 2 billion light-years across.
Galaxy Structure and Evolution
Simon White's research also looked at how stars move within galaxies. He studied the detailed structure of galaxies and their dark matter halos. He also explored how galaxies form and how groups of galaxies, called galaxy clusters, grow and change. His work helped explain 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 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, like how much matter it contains and its overall shape.
Simon White has published over 500 scientific papers. These papers have been cited by other scientists more than 281,000 times by the end of 2024. This shows how important and influential his work has been in the field of astrophysics.
Awards and Honours
Simon White has received many important awards for his contributions to science:
- Helen B. Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society, 1986
- 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
