Joseph Silk

{{Short description|British-American astrophysicist (born 1942)}} {{for|the American politician|Joseph Silk (politician)}} {{EngvarB|date=July 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Joseph Silk | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRS}} | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = Silk in 2015 | birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1942|12|3}} | birth_place = London, England | death_date = | death_place = | citizenship = UK United States<ref>{{Cite web |title=Joseph Silk |url=https://www.balzan.org/en/prizewinners/joseph-silk/bio-bibliography |access-date=2026-01-19 |website=Fondazione Internazionale Premio Balzan |language=en}}</ref> | fields = Cosmology | workplaces = Institut d'astrophysique de Paris University of Oxford University of California, Berkeley Johns Hopkins University | alma_mater = Clare College, Cambridge University of Manchester Harvard University | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = Max Tegmark<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://web.mit.edu/physics/people/faculty/tegmark_max.html|title="Max Tegmark / Professor of Physics"|publisher=MIT Department of Physics|website=web.mit.edu|access-date=2018-02-12}}</ref> | notable_students = | known_for = | awards = Royal Society Bakerian Medal (2007) Balzan Prize (2011) Gruber Prize in Cosmology (2019) | signature =  | signature_alt = | footnotes = }}

'''Joseph Ivor Silk''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS}} (born 3 December 1942) is a British-American astrophysicist. He was the Savilian Chair of Astronomy at the University of Oxford from 1999 to September 2011.

He is an Emeritus Fellow of New College, Oxford<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.new.ox.ac.uk/fellows/joseph.silk |title=New College, Oxford: Joseph Silk |access-date=30 June 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111222201556/http://www.new.ox.ac.uk/fellows/joseph.silk |archive-date=22 December 2011 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> and a Fellow of the Royal Society (elected May 1999). He was awarded the 2011 Balzan Prize for his works on the early Universe.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.balzan.org/en/prizewinners/joseph-ivor-silk |title=Joseph Ivor Silk |access-date=29 July 2013 |publisher=International Balzan Prize Foundation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160627041448/http://www.balzan.org/en/prizewinners/joseph-ivor-silk |archive-date=27 June 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Silk has given more than two hundred invited conference lectures, primarily on galaxy formation and cosmology.

==Biography== He was educated at Tottenham County School (1954–1960) and went on to study Mathematics at the University of Cambridge (1960–1963), followed by a diploma in astrophysics at the University of Manchester under the supervision of Roger Jennison.<ref name="Zierler">Zierler, David. [https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/47089 ''Interview of Joseph Silk by David Zierler on March 31, 2021'']. Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD USA. 2021 (accessed 21 June 2024)</ref> He obtained his PhD in Astronomy from Harvard in 1968, under the direction of David Layzer.<ref name="Zierler"/> Silk took up his first post at Berkeley in 1970, and the Chair in Astronomy in 1978. Following a career of nearly 30 years there, Silk returned to the UK in 1999 to take up the Savilian Chair of Astronomy at the University of Oxford. He is currently Professor of Physics at the Institut d'astrophysique de Paris, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Homewood Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University (since in 2010), and was Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College from 2015 to 2019.<ref>[http://www.gresham.ac.uk/gresham-professor-of-astronomy "Gresham Professor of Astronomy"] on the Gresham College website (accessed 27 July 2015)</ref>

==Silk damping== {{main|Diffusion damping}} The structure of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies is principally determined by two effects: acoustic oscillations and diffusion damping. The latter is also called collisionless or ''Silk'' damping after Joseph Silk.

==Honors and awards==

* 1972 and 1974 Sloan Research Fellow * 1975: Guggenheim Fellow * 1995: Fellow of the American Physical Society * 1999: Fellow of the Royal Society * 2007: Inclusion in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences * 2008: Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society * 2011: Balzan Prize for his works on the early Universe * 2014: Member of the US National Academy of Sciences * 2018: Henry Norris Russell Lectureship * 2019: Gruber Prize in Cosmology with Nicholas Kaiser "for their seminal contributions to the theory of cosmological structure formation and probes of dark matter"{{Citation needed|date=March 2020}} *2020: Fellow of the American Astronomical Society<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/03/04/american-astronomical-society-fellows/|title=Four Johns Hopkins faculty members named American Astronomical Society fellows|date=2020-03-04|website=The Hub|publisher=Johns Hopkins University|language=en|access-date=2020-03-06}}</ref> *2020: Nick Kylafis Lecturer<ref>{{Cite web|title=Nick Kylafis Lectureship {{!}} Institute of Astrophysics|url=https://www.ia.forth.gr/nick-kylafis-lectureship|access-date=2021-06-04|website=www.ia.forth.gr}}</ref>

==Publications== {{Scholia}} Silk has over 900 publications, nearly 200 as first author, of which 3 have been cited over 1000 times, over 50 have been published in ''Nature'' and 12 in ''Science''.<ref>[https://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_q=&num=10&btnG=Search+Scholar&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_occt=any&as_sauthors=%22Joseph+Silk%22&as_publication=&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&as_allsubj=all&hl=en&lr=&safeoff Google Scholar]</ref>

In 2011, Silk delivered a talk, "The Creation of the Universe," at the first Starmus Festival in the Canary Islands. The talk was subsequently published in the book ''Starmus: 50 Years of Man in Space.''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/starmus-festival-and-stephen-hawking-launch-the-book-starmus-50-years-of-man-in-space-274263251.html|title = Starmus Festival and Stephen Hawking Launch the Book "Starmus, 50 Years of Man in Space"}}</ref>

===Books by Joseph Silk=== *''The Infinite Cosmos'', Oxford University Press, 2006, {{ISBN|978-0-19-953361-9}} *''On the Shores of the Unknown: A Short History of the Universe'', Cambridge University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|0-521-83627-1}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=JowbGgYiSDYC&pg=PP1&dq=Joseph+Silk&sig=oKwbsp4-QL4XE_cwWHtQyivWNog#PPP1,M1 Google Link] *''The Big Bang'', W.H. Freeman, 2005, {{ISBN|0-7167-1812-X}} *''Cosmic Enigmas'', Springer, 1994, {{ISBN|1-56396-061-3}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ovXYxdSuOhkC&pg=PP1&dq=Joseph+Silk&sig=4s-6CAf5GN94VLQaoTBlWuCWltk#PPP1,M1 Google Link ]

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

==External links== {{Wikiquote|Joseph Silk}} *[http://www.gresham.ac.uk/astronomy-lecture-series-2015-an-introduction-by-professor-joseph-silk Introduction videos to Professor Silk and his work, upon his appointment to Gresham College in 2015] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304043632/http://www.gresham.ac.uk/astronomy-lecture-series-2015-an-introduction-by-professor-joseph-silk |date=4 March 2016 }} *[https://www.balzan.org/en/prizewinners/joseph-silk Joseph Silk] International Balzan Prize Foundation

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silk, Joseph}} Category:Living people Category:20th-century American astronomers Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Academic staff of the University of Paris Category:University of California, Berkeley faculty Category:Fellows of New College, Oxford Category:Academics of Gresham College Category:Recipients of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society Category:20th-century British astronomers Category:1942 births Category:Savilian Professors of Astronomy Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Category:21st-century American astronomers Category:Sloan Research Fellows Category:People from Tottenham Category:Scientists from London Category:Fellows of the American Astronomical Society Category:21st-century British astronomers Category:American fellows of the Royal Society