Eric Poisson is a Canadian
physicistA physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
specializing in the theory of black holes. Poisson is currently a
professorThe meaning of the word professor varies. In some English-speaking countries, it refers to a senior academic who holds a departmental chair, especially as head of the department, or a personal chair awarded specifically to that individual...
at the
University of GuelphThe University of Guelph, also known as U of G, is a medium-sized university located in Guelph, Ontario, established in 1964. While the U of G offers degrees in many different disciplines, the university is best known for its focus on life sciences, based in part on a long-standing history of...
. Poisson was awarded the 2005 Herzberg Medal, the highest honor awarded by the
Canadian Association of PhysicistsThe Canadian Association of Physicists , or in French Association Canadienne des Physiciens et Physiciennes is a Canadian lobby that focuses on creating awareness amongst Canadians and Canadian legislators of physics issues, sponsoring physics related events, and publishes the Physics in Canada...
.
He was born in
MontrealMontreal is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. Originally called Ville-Marie , the city takes its present name from Mont-Royal, the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the...
,
QuebecQuebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking identity and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
and grew up in Rimouski and
Quebec CityQuébec , is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in the province – after Montreal, about to the southwest...
. He obtained his BSc from Laval University in Quebec City, and his Ph.D. at the
University of AlbertaThe University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the top universities in Canada...
, in
EdmontonEdmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta. The city is located on the North Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province, an area with some of the most fertile farmland on the prairies...
. He received his doctorate in 1991 under the supervision of
Werner IsraelWerner Israel, OC, FRSC, FRS is a Canadian physicist.Born in Berlin, Germany and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, he received his B.Sc. in 1951 and his M.Sc. in 1954 from the University of Cape Town. He received his Ph.D...
.
His doctoral dissertation was on the concept of mass inflation (not to be confused with cosmological inflation), which he pioneered with Israel in a series of seminal papers.
Eric Poisson is a Canadian
physicistA physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
specializing in the theory of black holes. Poisson is currently a
professorThe meaning of the word professor varies. In some English-speaking countries, it refers to a senior academic who holds a departmental chair, especially as head of the department, or a personal chair awarded specifically to that individual...
at the
University of GuelphThe University of Guelph, also known as U of G, is a medium-sized university located in Guelph, Ontario, established in 1964. While the U of G offers degrees in many different disciplines, the university is best known for its focus on life sciences, based in part on a long-standing history of...
. Poisson was awarded the 2005 Herzberg Medal, the highest honor awarded by the
Canadian Association of PhysicistsThe Canadian Association of Physicists , or in French Association Canadienne des Physiciens et Physiciennes is a Canadian lobby that focuses on creating awareness amongst Canadians and Canadian legislators of physics issues, sponsoring physics related events, and publishes the Physics in Canada...
.
Education
He was born in
MontrealMontreal is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. Originally called Ville-Marie , the city takes its present name from Mont-Royal, the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the...
,
QuebecQuebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking identity and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
and grew up in Rimouski and
Quebec CityQuébec , is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in the province – after Montreal, about to the southwest...
. He obtained his BSc from Laval University in Quebec City, and his Ph.D. at the
University of AlbertaThe University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the top universities in Canada...
, in
EdmontonEdmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta. The city is located on the North Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province, an area with some of the most fertile farmland on the prairies...
. He received his doctorate in 1991 under the supervision of
Werner IsraelWerner Israel, OC, FRSC, FRS is a Canadian physicist.Born in Berlin, Germany and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, he received his B.Sc. in 1951 and his M.Sc. in 1954 from the University of Cape Town. He received his Ph.D...
.
Research
His doctoral dissertation was on the concept of mass inflation (not to be confused with cosmological inflation), which he pioneered with Israel in a series of seminal papers. Prior to the understanding of mass inflation, it was believed that
wormholesIn physics, a wormhole is a hypothetical topological feature of spacetime that is fundamentally a 'shortcut' through space and time. Spacetime can be viewed as a 2D surface that, when 'folded' over, allows the formation of a wormhole bridge. A wormhole has at least two mouths that are connected...
into other
universesThe Universe comprises everything that physically exists, the entirety of space and time, all forms of matter and energy, and the physical laws and constants that govern them...
would be found inside some black holes. Mass inflation closes off these wormholes in realistic black holes. Poisson's work on black hole interiors has been reviewed in popular science books as well as in the scientific press.
After completing his doctorate, Poisson spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow in
Kip Thorne'sKip Stephen Thorne is an American theoretical physicist, known for his prolific contributions in gravitation physics and astrophysics and for having trained a generation of scientists...
research group at the
California Institute of TechnologyThe California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. The Institute maintains a strong emphasis on the natural sciences and engineering, and operates and manages NASA's neighboring Jet Propulsion Laboratory...
, in
PasadenaPasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States; and is a satellite city of Los Angeles. Famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and the Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home of many leading scientific and cultural institutions, including the...
. During this period, he became interested in the
gravitational waveIn physics, a gravitational wave is a fluctuation in the curvature of spacetime which propagates as a wave, traveling outward from the source. Predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity, the waves transport energy known as gravitational radiation...
signatures that black hole systems might produce. Such signatures are crucial for the operation of gravitational wave detectors which are being developed such as
LIGOLIGO, which stands for Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, is a large physics experiment which is attempting to directly detect gravitational waves. Cofounded in 1992 by Kip Thorne and Ronald Drever of Caltech and Rainer Weiss of MIT, LIGO is a joint project between scientists at...
. This work continued for a subsequent year spent a year with Clifford Will at Washington University in St. Louis.
His research now focuses on gravitational self-force, which is the force on a body moving through a gravitational field arising from the mass and energy of the body itself. This self-force is expected to play a crucial role in understanding the motion of a stellar mass black hole orbiting and eventually spiraling into a
supermassive black holeA supermassive black hole is a black hole with the highest classification of mass, on the order of hundreds of thousands to billions of solar masses...
such as those that reside at the centers of galaxies. These astronomical systems will be of special interest to space-based gravitational wave detectors such as
LISAThe Laser Interferometer Space Antenna experiment is a joint venture of the European Space Agency and NASA to detect and observe in detail gravitational waves from astronomical sources. In 2008 ESA reported LISA was in the mission formulation stage with the earliest possible launch taking place...
when they are built, because they will allow precision measurements of the gravitational field of a black hole for the first time. For his important contributions to all of these areas of gravitational physics,