J. RICHARD GOTT

Astrophysicist famous for his work on time travel

J. Richard Gott, III is best known for his work as a theoretical and astrophysicist in both cosmology and general relativity. Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he would find academic success and scientific curiosity, propelling him to a bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Princeton. After taking a fellowship at Trinity College, he would return to Princeton in 1976 to join the University’s faculty.

Since then, his scholarship has explored unexpected topics. While his academic work in mapping the universe and theorizing the clustering pattern of galaxies has received the most attention in the scholarly world, his work on time travel has received greater scrutiny in pop culture. Specifically, in the early 1990s, he developed and then popularized the theory that if the gravitational field surrounding a cosmic string moves at a pace near the speed of light, the string can travel back in time.

Now a professor emeritus, he lives in Princeton, New Jersey.