Richard Matzner | |
---|---|
Alma mater | University of Notre Dame University of Maryland |
Known for | Binary Black Hole Grand Challenge Alliance |
Scientific career | |
Fields | General relativity Numerical relativity Cosmology Astrophysics |
Institutions | University of Texas at Austin |
Doctoral advisor | Charles Misner |
Other academic advisors | John Wheeler |
Doctoral students | Benjamin Schumacher Ignazio Ciufolini Tony Rothman Premana Premadi |
Richard Alfred Matzner is an American physicist, working mostly in the field of general relativity and cosmology, including numerical relativity, kinetic theory, black hole physics, and gravitational radiation.[1] He is Professor of Physics at the University of Texas at Austin where he directed the Center for Relativity.[2] In 1993 he organized and was Lead Principal Investigator of an NSF/ARPA funded computational Grand Challenge program involving ten university teams seeking computational descriptions for the interaction of black holes as potential sources for observable gravitational radiation.[3][4] His work leading what became known as the Binary Black Hole Grand Challenge Alliance[5][6][7] featured in Kip Thorne's Nobel Prize lecture, including when Matzner and Alliance collaborators wagered Thorne that numerical relativity would produce a simulated waveform comparable to observation prior to the first LIGO detection. Matzner and colleagues eventually won, Thorne saying he "conceded the bet with great happiness."[8]