Jack Wisdom
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Jack Wisdom (born 1953) is an American planetary scientist and Professor of Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his B.S. from Rice University in 1976 and his Ph.D. from California Institute of Technology in 1981. His research interests are the dynamics of the Solar System.
Wisdom pioneered the study of chaos in the solar system. His 1981 dissertation demonstrated for the first time the theoretical reason for the clearing of the Kirkwood gaps in the asteroid belt.<ref name="Wisdom1982">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Wisdom1983">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="BrouwerCitation">2001 Brouwer Award Citation, AAS DDA</ref> His work has also brought to light the chaotic rotation of Hyperion,<ref name="WPM84">Template:Cite journal</ref> chaos in the orbital evolution of Pluto,<ref name="SW88">Template:Cite journal</ref> and the chaotic obliquity of Mars<ref name="TW93"> Template:Cite journal</ref> which has important implications for the past Martian climate.
Work with colleague Gerald Sussman using a specially-built computer demonstrated that the solar system as a whole is chaotic on a timescale of about four million years,<ref name="SW92"> Template:Cite journal</ref> confirming results from Jacques Laskar.<ref name="L89"> Template:Cite journal</ref> This work was responsible for "shattering the long-held view of the clockwork motion of the planets."<ref name="BrouwerCitation"/>
More recently, Wisdom's work has shed light on the complex evolution of the Moon<ref name="TW92"> Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="W06"> Template:Cite journal</ref> and the tidal heating and dynamics of Enceladus.<ref name="MW07"> Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="MW08"> Template:Cite journal</ref>
In addition, Wisdom is credited with developing "numerous analytical and numerical techniques" that are fundamental to modern celestial mechanics,<ref name="BrouwerCitation"/> most notably the symplectic map for the n-body problem (developed together with Matthew J. Holman),<ref name="WH91">Template:Cite journal</ref> which "now forms the core of nearly every solar system dynamics integration scheme in use today."<ref name="BrouwerCitation"/>
Jack Wisdom is co-author of Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics. His 2003 paper in Science<ref name="Wisdom2003">Template:Cite journal</ref> on a new geometric phase effect which Wisdom calls "spacetime swimming" has attracted considerable attention, although it is not yet clear whether this effect has practical utility or even can be used to devise new tests of relativistic gravitation theories.
Awards and honorsEdit
- H. C. Urey Prize of the American Astronomical Society (1986)
- Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy of the AAS (1987)<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
- The asteroid 3402 Wisdom was named in his honor (1988)
- MacArthur Fellowship from the MacArthur Foundation (1994)
- Brouwer Award of the Division on Dynamical Astronomy of the American Astronomical Society (2001)
- Elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2020. <ref> {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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External linksEdit
- Wisdom's academic home page
- Spacetime swimming from Chris Van Den Broeck (Astronomy, University of Wales)