Charles W.
Misner
Charles William Misner (/ˈmɪsnər/; June 13, 1932 –
July 24, 2023) was an American physicist and one of Charles W. Misner
the authors of Gravitation. His specialties included
general relativity and cosmology. His work has also
provided early foundations for studies of quantum
gravity and numerical relativity.
Biography
Academic training and university Born June 13, 1932
positions Jackson, Michigan, U.S.
Misner received his B.S. degree from the University of Died July 24, 2023 (aged 91)
Notre Dame in 1952. He then moved to Princeton Alma mater University of Notre Dame
University, where he earned an M.A. in 1954 and Princeton University
completed his Ph.D. in 1957. His dissertation, Outline Known for Gravitation
of Feynman Quantization of General Relativity; Mixmaster universe
Derivation of Field Equations; Vanishing of the Misner space
Hamiltonian, was completed under John Wheeler. ADM formalism
Wormhole
Prior to completing his Ph.D., Misner joined the
Awards Guggenheim Fellowship[1]
faculty of the Princeton Physics Department with the
Heineman Prize (1994)
rank of Instructor (1956–1959), and was subsequently
Albert Einstein Medal
promoted to assistant professor (1959–1963). In 1963
he moved to the University of Maryland, College Park Scientific career
as an associate professor and achieved full professor Fields General relativity
status there in 1966. Since 2000, Misner has been Institutions Princeton University
Professor Emeritus of Physics, and he continued to be University of Maryland
a member of the Gravitation Theory Group in the
Doctoral advisor John Wheeler
Maryland Center for Fundamental Physics. During his
Arnold Ross
career, Misner advised 22 Ph.D. students primarily at
Princeton and at the University of Maryland. Doctoral students Carl H. Brans
Richard A. Isaacson
Misner held visiting positions at the Max Planck James A. Isenberg
Institute for Gravitational Physics (also known as the Richard Matzner
Albert Einstein Institute); the Kavli Institute for Vincent Moncrief
Theoretical Physics at the University of California, C. V. Vishveshwara
Santa Barbara; the Pontifical Academy of Cracow Signature
(Poland); the Institute for Physical Problems in
Moscow (during the time of the Soviet Union); the California Institute of Technology, the University of
Oxford, and the University of Cambridge.
Research
Most of Misner's research fell into the area of general relativity, which describes the gravitational
interactions of very massive bodies. He contributed to the early understanding of cosmology - he was one
of the first to point out the horizon problem, the role of topology in general relativity, quantum gravity,
and numerical relativity. In the areas of cosmology and topology he first studied the mixmaster universe,
which he devised in an attempt to better understand the dynamics of the early universe, and developed a
solution to the Einstein field equation that is now known as Misner space. Together with Richard
Arnowitt and Stanley Deser he published a Hamiltonian formulation of the Einstein equation that split
Einstein's unified spacetime back into separated space and time. This set of equations, known as the ADM
formalism, plays a role in some attempts to unify quantum mechanics with general relativity. It is also the
mathematical starting-point for most techniques for numerically solving Einstein's equations.
In 2015, the Albert Einstein Society presented the Albert Einstein Medal to Deser and Misner for their
work; Arnowitt had died the previous year.[2]
Death
Charles W. Misner died on July 24, 2023, at the age of 91.[3]
Bibliography
Misner, Charles W.; Kip S. Thorne; John Archibald Wheeler (September 1973). Gravitation.
San Francisco: W. H. Freeman. ISBN 0-7167-0344-0.
Misner, Charles W.; Patrick A. Cooney (1991). Spreadsheet Physics (https://archive.org/deta
ils/spreadsheetphysi00misn). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-16410-8.
References
1. Charles W. Misner, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (http://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellow
s/charles-w-misner/)
2. "South Bristol Physicist Reflects on 50-Year Career" (https://lcnme.com/currentnews/south-b
ristol-physicist-reflects-50-year-career/). The Lincoln County News. 24 August 2016.
Retrieved 30 September 2020.
3. Charles W. Misner, 1932–2023 (https://umdphysics.umd.edu/about-us/news/department-ne
ws/1893-misner.html#!gravity_theory_group)
External links
https://www.physics.umd.edu/grt/people/charles.html
https://www.physics.umd.edu/~misner/cwmstud.pdf
Charles W. Misner papers (https://archives.lib.umd.edu/repositories/2/resources/770), at the
University of Maryland libraries
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