Frederick J. Ernst

Education

B.S., Physics, Princeton University
Ph.D., Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison - The Wave Functional Description of Elementary Particles with Application to Nucleon Structure

Positions

1964 - 1969
Assistant Professor of Physics, Illinois Institute of Technology
1969 - 1980
Associate Professor of Physics, Illinois Institute of Technology
1980 - 1987
Professor of Physics, Illinois Institute of Technology

Biography

Frederick Ernst grew up outside Manhattan in Ardsley where he says that he got his interest in learning from his mother. Although she only had a high school education, his mother would borrow books from the library about topics like relativity so that she could learn more. Ernst was ten years old when he first started becoming interested in relativity from the books that his mother brought home from the library. His primary struggle with the subject was his insufficient background in mathematics so throughout his high school years he taught himself mathematics from university textbooks.

After High School, he planned to commute for one year to Columbia University because he had no money to go elsewhere. That changed however, when his science teacher told him about the Westinghouse competition. He took the exam, submitted the paper and was chosen to be among the 40 finalists and ended up winning second place. As a result, of winning the scholarship, he was able to finance his education at Princeton University. [1]

At Princeton, Ernst was able to fulfill his desire to understand mathematics with the advanced courses available there. When he graduated, despite the fact that he liked relativity, he chose a graduate school, Wisconsin, where relativity was not the main topic of research. There, he studied special relativistic quantum field theory, obtaining his doctorate under the direction of Professor Robert G. Sachs. [1]

Ernst realized that he enjoyed teaching physics and took a position at IIT. When Ernst first started working at IIT, he was working on theoretical particle physics along with Robert Warnock. However, his first love was not particle physics but general relativity. He left particle physics and worked with Robert Malhiot and Isidore Hauser in a general relativity group that he formed. In 1987, he left IIT for a position at Clarkson University. [2]

Ernst is most noted for his exact solution of the Einstein field equations, called the Ernst Equation. [2,3]

Notable Publications

  1. "Black-Holes In A Magnetic Universe", F.J. Ernst, Journal of Mathematical Physics 17, 54 (1976). {cited 124 times}
  2. "A Homogeneous Hilbert Problem For The Kinnersley-Chitre Transformations", I. Hauser and F.J. Ernst, Journal of Mathematical Physics 21, 1126 (1980). {cited 120 times}
  3. "Integral Equation Method For Effecting Kinnersley-Chitre Transformations", I. Hauser and F.J. Ernst, Physical Review D. 20, 362 (1979). {cited 99 times}
  4. "Removal Of Nodal Singularity Of C-Metric", F.J. Ernst, Journal of Mathematical Physics 17, 515 (1976). {cited 79 times}
  5. "Complex Potential Formulation Of Axially-Symmetric Gravitational Field Problem", F.J. Ernst, Journal of Mathematical Physics 15, 1409 (1974). {cited 75 times}.

References

[1] Ernst, F.J. (1998). Nothing to do?. Retrieved from http://members.localnet.com/~atheneum
[2] Harold N, Spector Papers (2002.54), IIT Archives
[3] Weisstein, Eric W. "Ernst Equation" From MathWorld -- A Wolfram Web Resource. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ErnstEquation.html