The American Institute of Physics (AIP) has awarded its 2016 John Torrence Tate Award for International Leadership in Physics to South African theoretical physicist Neil Turok.
“We are thrilled to award this prize to Dr. Turok for his many contributions to the international physics community, including his creation of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), his directorship of Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Ontario, Canada, and his many lectures and publications,” said AIP CEO Robert G.W. Brown.
Awarded every two years to non-U.S. citizens for international leadership in physics, the award consists of a medal, a certificate of recognition and a $10 000 prize. The award will be presented to Turok at the 2016 Quadrennial Physics Congress, which takes place from the 3rd to the 5th of November in Silicon Valley, California in the United States.
Born in South Africa, Turok pursued his education at Cambridge University in England where he received his doctorate in theoretical physics from Imperial College, London under the tutelage of David Olive. His research focuses on developing fundamental theories of cosmology and new observational tests. His predictions include a key signature of dark energy involving correlations between the temperature of the cosmic background radiation and the distribution of galaxies, which was recently confirmed. He developed the “open inflation” scenario with Stephen Hawking, among others, as well as its principal rival, a cyclic model of the universe, which was proposed with Paul Steinhardt and described in their popular book, Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang.
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