mathematics

Neil Turok

Neil Turok is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Neil Turok rather than just read about it. In short: Neil Geoffrey Turok (born 16 November 1958) is a South African physicist. He has held the Higgs Chair of Theoretical Physics at the University of Edinburgh since 2020, and has been director emeritus of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics since 2019.

Key takeaways

Neil Turok belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Neil Turok to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Neil Turok from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Neil Geoffrey Turok (born 16 November 1958) is a South African physicist. He has held the Higgs Chair of Theoretical Physics at the University of Edinburgh since 2020, and has been director emeritus of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics since 2019. He specializes in mathematical physics and early-universe physics, including the cosmological constant and a cyclic model for the universe.

Early life and career Turok was born on 16 November 1958 in Johannesburg, South Africa, to Mary Turok and Byelorussian-born Ben Turok, who were activists in the anti-apartheid movement and the African National Congress. After graduating from Churchill College, Cambridge, Turok gained his doctorate from Imperial College, London, under the supervision of David Olive, one of the inventors of superstring theory. After a postdoctoral post at Santa Barbara, he was an associate scientist at Fermilab, Illinois. In 1992 Turok was awarded the Maxwell medal of the Institute of Physics for his contributions to theoretical physics. In 1994 he was appointed Professor of Physics at Princeton University, then held the Chair of Mathematical Physics at the University of Cambridge starting in 1997. He was appointed Director of the Perimeter Institute in 2008. In 2020, Turok was appointed as the Inaugural Higgs Chair of Theoretical Physics at the University of Edinburgh.

Research and other contributions Turok has worked in a number of areas of mathematical physics and early universe physics, focusing on observational tests of fundamental physics in cosmology. In the early 1990s, his group showed how the polarisation and temperature anisotropies of the Cosmic microwave background would be correlated, a prediction which has been confirmed in detail by recent precision measurements by the WMAP spacecraft. They also developed a key test for the presence of a cosmological constant, also recently confirmed.

Turok and collaborators developed the theory of open inflation. With Stephen Hawking, he later developed the so-called Hawking-Turok instanton solutions which, according to the no-boundary proposal of Hawking and James Hartle, can describe the birth of an inflationary universe. Together with Justin Khoury, Burt Ovrut and Paul Steinhardt, Turok introduced the notion of the Ekpyrotic Universe, "... a cosmological model in which the hot big bang universe is produced by the collision of a brane in the bulk space with a bounding orbifold plane, beginning from an otherwise cold, vacuous, static universe". Most recently, with Paul Steinhardt at Princeton, Turok has been developing a cyclic model for the universe, in which the big bang is explained as a collision between two "brane-worlds" in M theory. The predictions of this model are in agreement with current cosmological data, but there are interesting differences with the predictions of cosmological inflation which will be probed by future experiments (probably by the Planck space observatory). In 2006, Steinhardt and Turok showed how the cyclic model could naturally incorporate a mechanism for relaxing the cosmological constant to very small values, consistent with current observations. In 2007, Steinhardt and Turok co-authored the popular science book Endless Universe. In 2012, Turok's Massey Lectures were published as The Universe Within: from Quantum to Cosmos. In 2003, Turok founded the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Muizenberg, a postgraduate educational centre supporting the development of mathematics and science across the African continent.

Awards and honours He was awarded the 2008 TED Prize for his work in mathematical physics and in establishing the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Muizenberg. He also received a "Most Innovative People Award," for Social Innovation, at the World Summit on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (WSIE) in 2008. On 9 May 2008, Mike Lazaridis announced that Turok would become the new Executive Director of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics starting on 1 October 2008. In 2010 Turok received a prize from the World Innovation Summit for Education in Qatar and an award from the South African Mathematical Society. In 2011 Turok received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Ottawa. On 3 November 2011, Turok was selected to deliver the Massey Lectures for the 2012 season. This involves five separate lectures to be delivered in various locations across Canada in October 2012, aired on CBC's Ideas shortly thereafter. Turok received an honorary doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 2012. In 2012 Turok was the recipient of the Lane Anderson Award for his book The Universe Within: From Quantum to Cosmos. Turok was awarded the honorary degrees of Doctor of Science, honoris causa from UCLouvain (4 February 2019), Saint Mary's University (16 May 2014), the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (9 April 2014) and Stellenbosch University (26 March 2015). Turok was awarded the 2016 John Torrence Tate Award at the 2016 SPS Quadrennial Congress in San Francisco. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2026.

References

External links Neil Turok's home page African Institute for Mathematical Sciences Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics http://news.nmmu.ac.za/News/Acclaimed-physicist-to-receive-honorary-doctorate Archived 9 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine Interviewed by Tina Kosir on 19 February 2008 (video) Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 27 April 2017 (video) Interviewed by Dr. Brian Greene, 26 December 2024 (video)

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Neil Turok

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Neil Turok claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Neil Turok before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Neil Turok ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Neil Turok

In research: Neil Turok appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Neil Turok in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Neil Turok is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1958 births, 20th-century South African physicists, Alumni of Churchill College, Cambridge, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Neil Turok outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Neil Turok in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Neil Turok means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Neil Turok out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Neil Turok in simple terms?

Why does Neil Turok matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Neil Turok?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Neil Turok.