Simon White is an astrophysicist who has made important contributions to the study of the formation and evolution of galaxies. He is also known for his work on dark matter, which accounts for most of the matter in the Universe but has so far only been detected through its gravitational effects. His computer simulations have led to the standard model of growth of structure in the Universe.
He was first to show that when two galaxies merge, the final product is similar to an elliptical galaxy - an egg-shaped galaxy whose stars orbit around the centre like bees in a swarm. With Martin Rees, he proposed that galaxies form though gas cooling and condensing at the centres of an evolving population of dark matter halos. With colleagues, he pioneered supercomputer simulations of cosmic structure formation, showing that our Universe appears to be dominated by cold dark matter.
He was first to show that when two galaxies merge, the final product is similar to an elliptical galaxy - an egg-shaped galaxy whose stars orbit around the centre like bees in a swarm. With Martin Rees, he proposed that galaxies form though gas cooling and condensing at the centres of an evolving population of dark matter halos. With colleagues, he pioneered supercomputer simulations of cosmic structure formation, showing that our Universe appears to be dominated by cold dark matter.
Simon is currently emeritus director at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics. He has published over 600 papers and been cited over 200,000 times. His many awards include, most recently, the 2011 Gruber Prize in Cosmology and the 2017 Shaw Prize in Astronomy
Professional position
- Director, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Max Planck Society
Subject groups
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Astronomy and Physics
Cosmology, Astrophysics
