{{short description|British physicist}} {{EngvarB|date=February 2018}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Ruth Gregory | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_date = | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | known_for = Gregory–Laflamme instability | fields = {{plainlist | * Mathematical physics * Theoretical physics }} | workplaces = {{Plainlist| * Fermilab * Fermi Institute * University of Durham * Perimeter Institute * King's College London }} |alma_mater = University of Cambridge (PhD) |awards = {{Plainlist| * Maxwell Medal and Prize {{small|(2006)}} * Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award {{small|(2011)}} }} | doctoral_advisor = John M. Stewart | doctoral_students = Antonio Padilla | website = {{Plainlist| * {{URL|maths.dur.ac.uk/~dma0rag/}} }} }} '''Ruth Ann Watson Gregory''' is a British mathematician and physicist, currently Head of Department of Physics and Professor of Theoretical Physics at King's College London.<ref name="kingsnews">[https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/professor-ruth-gregory-to-lead-physics-at-kings News Centre], King's College London, University of London. Retrieved 03 February 2021.</ref> Her fields of specialisation are general relativity and cosmology.<ref name="tedx">[http://www.tedxcle.com/ruth-gregory/ Ruth Gregory], TED<sup>x</sup>CLE. Retrieved 2016-02-28.</ref>
==Education== Gregory earned her PhD from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1988, writing a thesis on "topological defects in cosmology" supervised by John M. Stewart.
==Career== Gregory held postdoctoral appointments at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and Fermi Institute in the University of Chicago, before returning to Cambridge for a five-year research fellowship. She was appointed Professor of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Durham in 2005.<ref name="tedx" /> Gregory held this post until her appointment as Head of Department of Physics and Professor of Theoretical Physics at King's College London in 2021.<ref name="kingsnews" />
She is a visiting fellow at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics where she lectures as part of the PSI's master's programme.<ref>[https://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/people/ruth-gregory Staff profile], Perimeter Institute. Retrieved 27 February 2016.</ref><ref>[https://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/files/page/attachments/AnnReptoISED14-15.pdf 2014/15 Annual Report to Canada's Department of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development], Perimeter Institute. Retrieved 28 February 2016.</ref>
She serves as a managing editor of International Journal of Modern Physics D.<ref>[http://www.worldscientific.com/page/ijmpd/editorial-board Editorial Board], International Journal of Modern Physics D. Retrieved 28 February 2016.</ref>
==Research== Her research centres on the intersection of fundamental high energy physics and cosmology. She is best known for the Gregory–Laflamme instability, describing an instability of black strings in higher dimensions.<ref name="pheno">[https://www.ippp.dur.ac.uk/profile/dma0rag Ruth Gregory], Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology. Retrieved 28 February 2016.</ref>
==Awards and honours== Gregory was given the 2006 Maxwell Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics ''for her contributions to physics at the interface of general relativity and string theory, in particular for her work on the physics of cosmic strings and black holes''.<ref>[http://www.iop.org/about/awards/career/maxwell/medallists/page_38660.html Maxwell medal recipients], Institute of Physics. Retrieved 20 June 2014.</ref>
In 2011 she received the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award to study ''Time and Extra Dimensions in Space''.<ref>[https://royalsociety.org/news/2011/latest-round-of-prestigious-Wolfson/ Royal Society announces latest round of prestigious Wolfson Research Merit Awards], The Royal Society. Retrieved 28 February 2016.</ref>
==Selected publications== *{{citation | last1 = Gregory | first1 = Ruth | last2 = Laflamme | first2 = Raymond | author2-link = Raymond Laflamme | arxiv = hep-th/9301052 | doi = 10.1103/PhysRevLett.70.2837 | issue = 19 | journal = Physical Review Letters | mr = 1215408 | pages = 2837–2840 | title = Black strings and ''p''-branes are unstable | volume = 70 | year = 1993 | pmid = 10053666 | bibcode=1993PhRvL..70.2837G| s2cid = 118877812 }}. *{{citation | last1 = Gregory | first1 = Ruth | last2 = Laflamme | first2 = Raymond | author2-link = Raymond Laflamme | arxiv = hep-th/9404071 | doi = 10.1016/0550-3213(94)90206-2 | issue = 1–2 | journal = Nuclear Physics | mr = 1299265 | pages = 399–434 | title = The instability of charged black strings and ''p''-branes | volume = 428 | year = 1994| bibcode = 1994NuPhB.428..399G| s2cid = 118870476 }}. *{{citation | last1 = Bowcock | first1 = Peter | last2 = Charmousis | first2 = Christos | last3 = Gregory | first3 = Ruth | arxiv = hep-th/0007177 | doi = 10.1088/0264-9381/17/22/313 | issue = 22 | journal = Classical and Quantum Gravity | mr = 1797969 | pages = 4745–4763 | title = General brane cosmologies and their global spacetime structure | volume = 17 | year = 2000| bibcode = 2000CQGra..17.4745B| s2cid = 17088843 }}. *{{citation | last = Gregory | first = Ruth | arxiv = hep-th/9911015 | doi = 10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.2564 | issue = 12 | journal = Physical Review Letters | mr = 1746624 | pages = 2564–2567 | title = Nonsingular global string compactifications | volume = 84 | year = 2000 | pmid=11017270| bibcode = 2000PhRvL..84.2564G | s2cid = 2068529 }}. *{{citation | last = Gregory | first = Ruth | doi = 10.1088/0264-9381/17/18/103 | arxiv = hep-th/0004101 | issue = 18 | journal = Classical and Quantum Gravity | mr = 1791092 | pages = L125–L131 | title = Black string instabilities in anti-de Sitter space | volume = 17 | year = 2000| bibcode = 2000CQGra..17L.125G | s2cid = 14175513 }}. *{{citation | last1 = Gregory | first1 = Ruth | last2 = Rubakov | first2 = Valery A. | last3 = Sibiryakov | first3 = Sergei M. | arxiv = hep-th/0002072 | doi = 10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.5928 | issue = 26, part 1 | journal = Physical Review Letters | mr = 1766870 | pages = 5928–5931 | title = Opening up extra dimensions at ultralarge scales | volume = 84 | year = 2000 | pmid=10991091| bibcode = 2000PhRvL..84.5928G| s2cid = 7058868 }}.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/diversity-in-science/parent-carer-scientist/ruth-gregory/ Professor Ruth Gregory – profile at The Royal Society website.]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gregory, Ruth}} Category:Living people Category:British physicists Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Category:Academics of Durham University Category:20th-century British mathematicians Category:21st-century British mathematicians Category:21st-century British women mathematicians Category:Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holders Category:20th-century British women mathematicians Category:Year of birth missing (living people)