4.9 Astronomer Biography: Kip Thorne

Kip Thorne's tremendous legacy to the realm of theoretical physics and astrophysics in the 20th century is practically second to none. Having trained a generation of scientists and made innumerable contributions to these fields, Kip Thorne is one of the best in his field and also one of the leading experts on the implications of Einstein's theory of general relativity.
Born in Logan, Utah in 1940 to a college professor father and chemist/economist mother, Thorne was raised in a highly academic environment and excelled in his schoolwork. Thorne's academic prowess allowed him to achieve his high educational goals at a relatively young age, receiving his BS at 22 from Caltech and his PhD from Princeton at 25. In 1967, Thorne returned to Caltech as one of the youngest full professors to teach theoretical physics. Throughout his many years of teaching at the institution, Thorne has mentored as many as 50 physicists who now work in the observational and experimental fields.
Overall, Kip Thorne's research has centered on astrophysics and gravitational physics, leading him to study such phenomena as relativistic stars, gravitational waves, and black holes. He is also credited with the somewhat controversial assertion that wormholes can be used for time travel. However, his contributions to the field largely concern Einstein's theory of general relativity, namely the general nature of space, time, and gravity.
Several of Thorne's discoveries are of great worth to astronomy. F0r example, Thorne proposed the idea of hoop conjecture, which describes the mechanism for black hole formation and also eliminates the view of a black hole as a naked singularity. Thorne along with his friend and colleague Stephen Hawking, believe that there is instead a singularity at the interior of the black hole.