Kerr Fest Guestbook

As a number of people who would have liked to have come were unable to travel the large distance to New Zealand we created an online Guest Book, where colleagues recorded messages to Roy. The results are below

We will begin the guestbook with a quote found on the web...


"...The most noteworthy development of this period was the discovery in 1963 of the rotating Schwarzschild solution of Roy Kerr. I became aware of the Kerr solution in 1966, and I spent nine months trying to convince myself that it was indeed a solution of the Einstein equations. The Nobel prize winner S. Chandrasekhar told me that he also spent nine months doing the same. It was just a very difficult thing to do! ..."
Frederick J. Ernst
- 2004
Just 45 years ago, in the autumn of 1959, Achille Papapetrou advised me, the youngest assistent in his research group at Berlin, "to find the Kerr metric". Of course, the problem was to determine the exterior gravitational field of a rotating body. After several months hard work I gave up - I had produced lots of uninteresting solutions but not the Kerr field... Late congratulations to your beautiful success and Happy Birthday! Georg Dautcourt
Georg Dautcourt <daut@aei.mpg.de>
Germany - Friday, September 24, 2004 at 01:06:16 (NZST)
Good to hear last week in Budapest (from Zoltan) that you are well and happy. I wish you all the best for your birthday----now take a fresh guard (at least you'll understand the phrase)for the next 70!!-----Graham.
Graham Hall <g.hall@maths.abdn.ac.uk>
Scotland - Monday, September 13, 2004 at 04:53:40 (NZST)
Very many congratulations - how did we come to be almost the same age? I have very much valued your scientific viewpoint and achievements, and learnt from them, especially in that year you spent here, and have always enjoyed your company. Pity we have not seen more of you or been able to keep better in touch but I hope we may do so in future. Of course there are things I shall never forget - racing to the hospital with the youngest member of your family, the sight of the tent and Rolls-Royce, etc. Very sorry I could not come to the meeting: I hope you had a great time. Very best wishes, Malcolm
Malcolm MacCallum <m.a.h.maccallum@qmul.ac.uk>
UK - Friday, September 03, 2004 at 01:31:32 (NZST)
Great greetings on reaching 70! So much of your work has been an inspiration. Not just the Kerr solution. The Kerr theorem for shear-free null congruences had a seminal role in twistor theory. Now string theorists do twistor theory!
Roger Penrose
UK - Wednesday, September 01, 2004 at 14:49:01 (NZST)
Dear Roy, I join from a distance in celebrating your wonderful metric and your many other achievements. Happy birthday! Ivor
Ivor Robinson <robinson@utdallas.edu>
- Saturday, August 28, 2004 at 04:43:11 (NZST)
Hi Roy Congratulations on your birthday and the celebratory Kerr Fest. I am sorry we have not interected further during the overlap period at Canterbury. Congratulations anyway and warm wishes. Graeme Wake
Graeme Wake <g.c.wake@massey.ac.nz>
New Zealand - Friday, August 27, 2004 at 09:39:11 (NZST)
Dear Roy, Congratulations on your birthday and your other achievements being celebrated at the Kerr Fest. I got word of these goings on from my niece Nancy in San Diego, the daughter of my brother Malcolm in San Jose. Much love and best wishes to you and the family over there from members of the clan in New York and California. Don Martin 470 Park Avenue New York, NY 10022
Donald N. Martin
USA - Friday, August 27, 2004 at 05:43:27 (NZST)
Hi Roy, Happy birthday! I have always admired your very clear and concise way of working, which has clarified geometric concepts so nicely and paid off so well. The Kerr Solution is certainly one of the major discoveries in relativity theory, showing many interesting global properties as well as having major physical significance. Thaks for giving it to us all. Best wishes from Cape Town, George Ellis
George Ellis <ellis@maths.uct.ac.za>
South Africa - Thursday, August 26, 2004 at 23:50:29 (NZST)
I happened to be listening to national radio and heard the interview with Prof Kerr. As a total outsider to the whole spectrum of physics, I found the interview really interesting.
Melanie
NZ - Tuesday, August 24, 2004 at 13:19:58 (NZST)
Dear Roy, Congratulations on your having reached a significant age milestone. Congratulations also for the recognition and honors you have won. When I met you at Wright Field, I did not realize you were about to describe the fate of all the stars in the universe. Sorry I cannot be at the Kerr Fest in person. With best wishes, Louis Witten
Louis Witten <witten@physics.uc.edu>
- Tuesday, August 24, 2004 at 06:06:02 (NZST)
Dear Roy, Happy birthday! It will soon be half-a-century since we were colleagues together at Cambridge. You may recollect that we even wrote a paper together on deriving equations of motion from GR. I believe that we did meet again after Cambridge at some conference, but the time and its location escape my memory. Your black hole solution was a great discovery. I hope you have a succesful Fest and that this finds you in good health. Best Regards, John.
John Moffat <jmoffat@perimeterinstitute.ca>
Canada - Tuesday, August 24, 2004 at 04:53:09 (NZST)
Dear Roy, I wish you an happy birthday. I was so happy to share with you the living room of our two apartments in Cochin last February! It was nice to meeting you also in Bangalore. I hope that the conference will be very nice for you, and wish you all the best for the coming years. Sincerely yours, Luc Blanchet
Luc Blanchet <blanchet@iap.fr>
France - Tuesday, August 24, 2004 at 01:42:44 (NZST)
Dear Roy, Happy birthday ! We have never met. But I have been influenced by your achievement in unveiling the Kerr metric since my postdoc days in Austin in the early seventies. There I heard stories about you and the discovery from the late Alfred Schild. And who can work on black holes without bumping all the time into your blessed solution ? Just a few years back two of my graduate student showed me how one can deduce classically that black hole entropy has to be proportional to black hole area just from the elementary properties of the Kerr metric. There is scarcely a result in gravitation theory which can compare to your metric it in manifold uses---black hole physics, astrophysics, quantum gravity---you name it. I wish we could have met at this august occasion. But all the same, my best wishes to you for many happy returns, good health and continued scientific productivity. Jacob D. Bekenstein
Jacob D. Bekenstein <bekenste@vms.huji.ac.il>
Israel - Saturday, August 21, 2004 at 01:01:53 (NZST)
Dear Roy, Congratulations on your birthday and for making it possible for so many people to enjoy learning about the extraordinary properties of a metric that you liked to call 'spinning Schwarzschild'. Best wishes
John D. Barrow
- Friday, August 20, 2004 at 01:22:07 (NZST)
Dear Roy, You know that your solution is the main point of my scientific activity. But it is really connected with all branches of the modern physics: from Cosmos to Superstrings up to Plankian scale. I wish you good health and long years of further activity. It is very pitty that I will not be able to see you now, but maybe you will be able to visit Moscow. It would be fine, and I could try to do my best for such a visit. Please accept my heartiest congratulations on the occasion of your Jubilee. Yours, Alexander
Alexander Burinskii <bur@ibrae.ac.ru>
Russia - Tuesday, August 17, 2004 at 21:57:01 (NZST)
Dear Roy, I have enormous respect and enthusiasm for your contributions to mathematical physics. I wish I could be in New Zealand to celebrate your birthday with you. My warm wishes for a great celebration amidst good friends. Kip
Kip Thorne <kip@tapir.caltech.edu>
- Saturday, August 14, 2004 at 10:19:39 (NZST)
Greetings to the Lord of the confocal parabolic(?) Rings on this major event! All we earthlings are duly grateful for the many papers made possible by your own; some of us-such as the undersigned- are still trying to find an easy way to understand one of them! It has been a long time since we met in this hemisphere, but I remember the good old days when GR was young (again) and the living was- if not easy,-at least always rewarding! Happy big birthday ,Stanley
Stanley Deser <deser@brandeis.edu>
USA - Saturday, August 14, 2004 at 06:37:57 (NZST)
Dear Roy, I'm really sorry not to be with you to celebrate your achievements, and your attainment of 'years of discretion'! It is wonderful that we now know that there are zillions of 'Kerr solutions' throughout the cosmos. I'm glad that my colleague Andy Fabian will be there -- he's done more than anyone to firm this evidence up. All good wishes. Martin Rees
Martin Rees
- Friday, August 13, 2004 at 20:40:33 (NZST)