Kip Thorne

About Kip Thorne

Who is it?: Physicist
Birth Day: June 01, 1940
Birth Place: Logan, United States
Education: California Institute of Technology (BS) Princeton University (MS, PhD)
Known for: Thorne-Żytkow object Roman arch Thorne-Hawking-Preskill bet
Awards: Lilienfeld Prize (1996) Albert Einstein Medal (2009) Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (2016) Gruber Prize in Cosmology (2016) Shaw Prize (2016) Kavli Prize (2016) Harvey Prize (2016) Princess of Asturias Award (2017) Nobel Prize in Physics (2017)
Fields: Astrophysics Gravitational physics
Institutions: California Institute of Technology
Thesis: Geometrodynamics of cylindrical systems (1965)
Doctoral advisor: John Archibald Wheeler
Doctoral students: William L. Burke Carlton M. Caves Lee Samuel Finn Sándor J. Kovács David L. Lee Alan Lightman Don N. Page William H. Press Richard H. Price Bernard F. Schutz Saul Teukolsky Clifford Martin Will

Kip Thorne

Kip Thorne was born on June 01, 1940 in Logan, United States, is Physicist. Kip Stephen Thorne is a renowned theoretical physicist who is considered among the leading experts on the subjects of gravitational physics and astrophysics. Born to academician parents, this erudite physicist showed great aptitude for science since his childhood. Pursuing his graduate studies from the Caltech University, Kip went on to earn a doctorate from the Princeton where he his supervisor was John Wheeler. Stephen then embarked on an academic career at Caltech where he collaborated with some of the leading scientists in the field of astrophysics. With sterling academics, he became the youngest professor ever to be appointed at the Caltech University. Throughout his career he proved to be an excellent guide and mentor to students who turned out to be pioneers in the discipline of astrophysics. He worked along with Ulvi Yurtsever and Mike Morris to demonstrate the existence of Lorentzian wormholes that connect two separate points in space time, paving the path for further research into the possibility that negative energy could be a characteristic of quantum fields. He also dabbled with the red supergiant stars and along with fellow collaborator Anna Zytkow and also prophesised a possibility of their existence. Thorne is currently involved with research on quantum foam concept propounded by his mentor John Wheeler. Read on to know more about his life and works.
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Does Kip Thorne Dead or Alive?

As per our current Database, Kip Thorne is still alive (as per Wikipedia, Last update: May 10, 2020).

🎂 Kip Thorne - Age, Bio, Faces and Birthday

Currently, Kip Thorne is 84 years, 4 months and 12 days old. Kip Thorne will celebrate 85rd birthday on a Sunday 1st of June 2025. Below we countdown to Kip Thorne upcoming birthday.

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Popular As Kip Thorne
Occupation Scientists
Age 83 years old
Zodiac Sign Cancer
Born June 01, 1940 (Logan, United States)
Birthday June 01
Town/City Logan, United States
Nationality United States

🌙 Zodiac

Kip Thorne’s zodiac sign is Cancer. According to astrologers, the sign of Cancer belongs to the element of Water, just like Scorpio and Pisces. Guided by emotion and their heart, they could have a hard time blending into the world around them. Being ruled by the Moon, phases of the lunar cycle deepen their internal mysteries and create fleeting emotional patterns that are beyond their control. As children, they don't have enough coping and defensive mechanisms for the outer world, and have to be approached with care and understanding, for that is what they give in return.

🌙 Chinese Zodiac Signs

Kip Thorne was born in the Year of the Dragon. A powerful sign, those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Dragon are energetic and warm-hearted, charismatic, lucky at love and egotistic. They’re natural born leaders, good at giving orders and doing what’s necessary to remain on top. Compatible with Monkey and Rat.

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Biography/Timeline

1940

Thorne was born in Logan, Utah on June 1, 1940. His father was a Chemist, his mother Alison (née Comish) Thorne, was an Economist and the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in the discipline from Iowa State College. Raised in an academic environment, two of his four siblings also became professors. Thorne's parents were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and raised Thorne in the LDS faith, though he now describes himself as atheist. Regarding his views on science and religion, Thorne has stated: "There are large numbers of my finest colleagues who are quite devout and believe in God [...] There is no fundamental incompatibility between science and religion. I happen to not believe in God."

1960

Thorne and Linda Jean Peterson married in 1960. Their children are Kares Anne and Bret Carter, an Architect. Thorne and Peterson divorced in 1977. Thorne and his second wife, Carolee Joyce Winstein, a professor of biokinesiology and physical therapy at USC, married in 1984.

1962

Thorne rapidly excelled at academics early in life, winning recognition in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search as a senior at Logan High School and becoming one of the youngest full professors in the history of the California Institute of Technology at age 30. He received his B.S. degree from Caltech in 1962, and Ph.D. degree from Princeton University in 1965. He wrote his doctoral thesis, Geometrodynamics of Cylindrical Systems, under the supervision of relativist John Wheeler. Thorne returned to Caltech as an associate professor in 1967 and became a professor of theoretical physics in 1970, the william R. Kenan, Jr. Professor in 1981, and the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics in 1991. He was an adjunct professor at the University of Utah from 1971 to 1998 and Andrew D. White Professor at Large at Cornell University from 1986 to 1992. In June 2009 he resigned his Feynman Professorship (he is now the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus) to pursue a career of writing and movie making. His first film project was Interstellar, on which he worked with Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan.

1973

Thorne has written and edited books on topics in gravitational theory and high-energy astrophysics. In 1973, he co-authored the textbook Gravitation with Charles Misner and John Wheeler; that according to John C. Baez and Chris Hillman, is one of the great scientific books of all time and has inspired two generations of students. In 1994, he published Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy, a book for non-scientists for which he received numerous awards. This book has been published in six languages, and editions in Chinese, Italian, Czech, and Polish are in press. In 2014, Thorne published The Science of Interstellar in which he explains the science behind Christopher Nolan's film Interstellar; Nolan wrote the foreword to the book. In September, 2017, Thorne and Roger D. Blandford published Modern Classical Physics: Optics, Fluids, Plasmas, Elasticity, Relativity, and Statistical Physics, a graduate-level textbook covering the six major areas of physics listed in the title.

1998

Why is it that a cylindrical bundle of magnetic field lines will not implode, while spherical stars will implode under their own gravitational force? Thorne tried to explore the theoretical ridge between the two phenomena. He found out eventually that the gravitational force can overcome all interior pressure only when an object has been compressed in all directions. To express this realization, Thorne proposed his hoop conjecture, which describes an imploding star turning into a black hole when the critical circumference of the designed hoop can be placed around it and set into rotation. That is, any object of mass M around which a hoop of circumference can be spun must be a black hole.

1999

Thorne is known for his ability to convey the excitement and significance of discoveries in gravitation and astrophysics to both professional and lay audiences. In 1999, Thorne made some speculations on what the 21st century will find as the answers to the following questions:

2009

He was elected to hold Lorentz chair for the year 2009 Leiden University, the Netherlands.

2013

With Anna Żytkow, Thorne predicted the existence of red supergiant stars with neutron-star cores (Thorne–Żytkow objects). He laid the foundations for the theory of pulsations of relativistic stars and the gravitational radiation they emit. With James Hartle, Thorne derived from general relativity the laws of motion and precession of black holes and other relativistic bodies, including the influence of the coupling of their multipole moments to the spacetime curvature of nearby objects. Thorne has also theoretically predicted the existence of universally antigravitating "exotic matter" – the element needed to accelerate the expansion rate of the universe, keep traversable wormhole "Star Gates" open and keep timelike geodesic free float "warp drives" working. With Clifford Will and others of his students, he laid the foundations for the theoretical interpretation of experimental tests of relativistic theories of gravity – foundations on which Will and others then built. As of 2005, Thorne was interested in the origin of classical space and time from the quantum foam of quantum gravity theory.

2016

Kip Thorne was selected by Time magazine in an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the American world in 2016.

2017

In 2017, Thorne was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics along with Rainer Weiss and Barry C. Barish "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves".

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