Sir Hermann Bondi |
|
---|---|
Born |
Vienna, Austria |
1 November 1919
Died | 10 September 2005 Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England |
(aged 85)
Citizenship | British |
Nationality | Austrian |
Fields |
Mathematician Physical cosmology |
Institutions |
King's College London University of Cambridge |
Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
Doctoral advisor |
Harold Jeffreys Arthur Eddington |
Doctoral students | Hans-Peter Künzle Felix Pirani Roger Tayler |
Known for |
Steady State theory Sticky bead argument Bondi accretion Bondi k-calculus Atheism |
Notable awards |
Fellow of the Royal Society Order of the Bath |
Sir Hermann Bondi KCB FRS (1 November 1919 – 10 September 2005) was an Anglo-Austrian mathematician and cosmologist. He is best known for developing the Steady State theory of the universe with Fred Hoyle and Thomas Gold as an alternative to the Big Bang theory. He contributed to the theory of general relativity.
Bondi was born in Vienna, the son of a medical doctor. He was brought up in Vienna, where he studied at the Realgymnasium. He showed early prodigious ability at mathematics, and was recommended to Arthur Eddington by Abraham Fraenkel. Fraenkel was a distant relation, the only mathematician in the extended family, and Hermann's mother had the foresight to engineer a meeting between her young son and the famous man, knowing that this might be the key to enabling him to follow his wishes and become a mathematician himself. Eddington encouraged him to travel to England to read the mathematical tripos at Trinity College, Cambridge. He arrived in Cambridge in 1937, escaping from anti-semitism in Austria. Realising the perilous position of his parents in 1938, shortly before the Anschluss, he sent them a telegram telling them to leave Austria at once. They managed to reach Switzerland, and later settled in New York.