PHYSICIST

Kip Thorne

1940 - Today

Photo of Kip Thorne

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Kip Stephen Thorne (born June 1, 1940) is an American theoretical physicist and writer known for his contributions in gravitational physics and astrophysics. Along with Rainer Weiss and Barry C. Barish, he was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves. A longtime friend and colleague of Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan, he was the Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) until 2009 and speaks of the astrophysical implications of the general theory of relativity. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Kip Thorne has received more than 2,429,767 page views. His biography is available in 60 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 57 in 2019). Kip Thorne is the 143rd most popular physicist (down from 104th in 2019), the 524th most popular biography from United States (down from 430th in 2019) and the 17th most popular American Physicist.

Kip Thorne is most famous for his work in general relativity, black holes, and gravitational waves.

Memorability Metrics

  • 2.4M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 71.40

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 60

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 7.15

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.98

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, Kip Thorne ranks 143 out of 851. Before him are Peter Grünberg, Augustin-Jean Fresnel, Rudolf Mössbauer, George Paget Thomson, Donald A. Glaser, and Auguste Piccard. After him are Jacques Charles, Georges Charpak, Pavel Cherenkov, Hannes Alfvén, Simon van der Meer, and Karl Schwarzschild.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1940, Kip Thorne ranks 34. Before him are John Hurt, Pina Bausch, Peter Fonda, Abbas Kiarostami, Tony Tan, and Giorgio Moroder. After him are Anna Karina, Raquel Welch, Burt Young, Terry Gilliam, Dario Argento, and Abdurrahman Wahid.

Others Born in 1940

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Kip Thorne ranks 524 out of 20,380. Before him are William Holden (1918), Paul Simon (1941), Christopher Reeve (1952), Carroll Shelby (1923), Sydney Pollack (1934), and Charlie Parker (1920). After him are Michael Keaton (1951), Farrah Fawcett (1947), Alice Cooper (1948), Chester A. Arthur (1829), Anna Politkovskaya (1958), and Nelson Rockefeller (1908).

Others born in United States

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Among PHYSICISTS In United States

Among physicists born in United States, Kip Thorne ranks 17. Before him are Owen Chamberlain (1920), Ben Roy Mottelson (1926), Joseph Henry (1797), Val Logsdon Fitch (1923), Robert Coleman Richardson (1937), and Donald A. Glaser (1926). After him are Arthur Compton (1892), Hugh Everett III (1930), Melvin Schwartz (1932), George E. Smith (1930), Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (1921), and Martin Lewis Perl (1927).

American born Physicists

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