Skip to main content
Bernard Schutz FRS FRAS FLSW

Professor Bernard Schutz

(he/him)

FRS FRAS FLSW

Teams and roles for Bernard Schutz

Overview

I am an Emeritus Professor in the Gravity Exploration Institute in the School of Physics and Astronomy and a Member of the Max Planck Society of Germany, for which I was a founding director of the MPI for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute). My principal research interest is in gravitational wave detection and in the science that comes from it, which I have worked on since the mid-1980s.  My work has been recognised by election to a number of Academies, including Fellow of the Royal Society, Member of the US National Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales, and Member of Leopoldina. I am a recipient of the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society, of the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, of the Isaacson Award of the American Physical Society, and of the Amaldi Gold Medal of the Italian Society for General Relativity and Gravitation. I have authored three textbooks and co-authored over 400 research papers.

 

Publication

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

1996

1995

Articles

Websites

Research

My principal research over the last 40 years has been in the study of the physics and astrophysics of possible gravitational wave sources, including black holes and neutron stars; and in methods of analyzing data from gravitational wave detectors to discover and study gravitational waves. Before that I worked on the dynamical properties of neutron stars and black holes, which lead to their emission of gravitational waves.

When studying gravitational wave emission, at Yale and then at Cardiff, I worked with John Friedman (University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee) to explain how gravitational wave emission can sometimes destabilize a rotating star, such as a spinning neutron star (observable as a pulsar). This mechanism is now called the Chandrasekhar-Friedman-Schutz (CFS) instability. It is believed to limit the rotation speeds of millisecond pulsars. Friedman and I also established the full theory governing pulsations of neutron stars, which underlies the CFS instability.

An early discovery which I made in 1986 at Cardiff was that gravitational wave signals from binary systems bring us enough information to allow us to infer the distance from us to their source. This is unusual in astronomy, because to compute the distance one needs to know the intrinsic luminosity of the object (how fast they radiate energy), which is normally not precisely known. Stars or other systems whose luminosity is known are prized by astronomers because they help measure, among other things, the dimension and expansion rate of the Universe. They are called "standard candles". Since gravitational wave signals also tell us the gravitational wave luminosity, they can be used for the same purpose. Because gravitational waves are more like sound waves than like light waves, we call these binary systems "standard sirens". 

My Cardiff research group and I then went on to create the first data analysis software system for searching for gravitational wave signals from the data of two separated interferometric detectors. We also joined with colleagues at Cambridge and York Universities to establish the first UK computer systems for solving Einstein's equations numerically, to study binary black hole systems.

I continued this work at the Albert Einstein Institute (AEI) in Germany after 1995, as well as helping to grow the institute into the largest relativity research institute in the world. It now has two locations, the original in Potsdam and a second in Hannover. It operates the GEO600 detector, which is smaller than the LIGO detectors that made the first detection, but which is where much of the advanced technology that was essential for LIGO's detections was developed and tested. The AEI is also the academic center of the LISA space-based gravitational wave mission, which is now under construction by the European Space Agency (ESA), for launch around 2035.

I was a Principal Investigator of the British-German GEO collaboration, formed in the early 1990s. I was responsible for data analysis. Since the early 2000's, GEO has been a key part of the international LIGO Scientific Collaboration. I was also a member of the LISA Science Team from its inception in 1994, helping to develop the project and in particular to plan for its data analysis, until it was fully adopted by ESA.

Teaching

Since arriving in Cardiff in 1974, I have taught general relativity, its mathematical basis in differential geometry, and gravitational wave astrophysics to undergraduates and MSc students. My textbook, A First Course in General Relativity (Cambridge University Press), is one of the most widely used introductory texts in the subject worldwide, and its third edition appeared in 2022. My textbook on differential geometry, Geometrical Methods of Mathematical Physics (Cambridge University Press 1980), is still widely used at the post-graduate level, despite its age. My "semi-popular" book Gravity From the Ground Up (Cambridge University Press 2003) is an introduction to modern relativistic gravity that is aimed at school and university students who want an intuitive understanding of the subject; it employs algebra but not calculus in its mathematical treatment.

After returning to Cardiff from Germany in 2014, I taught advanced modules in relativistic astrophysics for several years. 

Biography

I was born and educated in the USA, getting my PhD from Caltech in 1971. I had two postdoctoral positions (at Cambridge University and Yale) and then came to Cardiff for my first academic teaching position as a lecturer in 1974.

In 1995, then a full professor, I accepted a full time appointment as a founding Director of the new Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) in Potsdam, Germany (http://www.aei.mpg.de/). I maintained a small part-time appointment at Cardiff while in Germany. 

I retired from the Albert Einstein Institute in 2014 and returned to Cardiff half-time to become the first director of the Data Innovation Institute, which was a predecessor of Cardiff's Digital Transformaton Innovation Institute. Starting in 2025, I became an Emeritus Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy.

Honours and awards

Academies:

  • Fellow of the Royal Society
  • Member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA)
  • Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales
  • Member of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina
  • Member of the Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences, Uppsala

Medals and other awards:

  • Rumford Medal of the Royal Society
  • Isaacson Award of the American Physical Society
  • Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
  • Honorary Doctor of Science (DSc) degree from University of Glasgow
  • Amaldi Gold Medal of the Italian Society for General Relativity and Gravitational Physics

Fellowships:

  • Honorary Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society
  • Fellow of the International Society for General Relativity and Gravitation
  • Fellow of the American Physical Society
  • Fellow of the Institute of Physics (UK).

Honorary Professorships at the Georgia Institute of Technology (USA), Potsdam University (Germany), and the Leibniz University of Hannover (Germany).

Professional memberships

 

  • German Physical Society
  • Max Planck Society
  • COSPAR (Fundamental Physics section)
  • International Astronomical Union
  • Institute of Physics (UK)
  • Royal Astronomical Society
  • International Society of General Relativity and Gravitation
  • American Physical Society
  • Society of Sigma Xi (USA)

Academic positions

  • 2025: Emeritus Professor Cardiff University
  • 2014-2015: Founding Director, Data Innovation Research Institute, Cardiff University
  • 2014: Professor, School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University
  • 1995: Director, Division of Astrophysical Relativity, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), Potsdam, Germany; part-time Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University.
  • 1974: Lecturer, then Reader and Professor; first in Department of Applied Mathematics and Astronomy, later in the School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University.
  • 1972: Postdoctoral position, Department of Physics, Yale University.
  • 1971: Postdoctoral fellowship, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University. 
  • 1967: PhD student, Department of Physics, California Institute of Technology. PhD 1971 supervised by Kip Thorne.
  • 1964: Undergraduate in Physics, Clarkson College of Technology, Potsdam, NY (now Clarkson University). Graduated 1967 with B.Sc. in Physics.
  • 1960: Student at Bethpage High School, Bethpage, NY. Graduated 1964.

Committees and reviewing

 

  • 2015-16: Member, ESA Gravitational-wave Observatory Advisory Team
  • 2012-18: Member, LISA project science working team, co-chair of working group for theory and data analysis
  • 2012-15: Member, Program Advisory Board, KAGRA (Japanese gravitational wave interferometer project)
  • 2011-2018: Member, Editorial Board, Physical Review X
  • 2007-16: Member, International Committee of the International Society of General Relativity and Gravitation
  • 2004-08: Chair, ESA Fundamental Physics Advisory Group, and member, Space Science Advisory Committee, European Space Agency
  • 2003-24: Member, Council of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration
  • 2003-19: Member, Executive Committee, LIGO Scientific Collaboration
  • 2003-12: Member, LISA International Science Team (LIST), representing ESA.
  • 1998-2014: Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Living Reviews in Relativity
  • 1994-95: Chair, Astronomy Committee of the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC), responsible for setting UK spending priorities in space and ground-based astronomy. Previously chair and member of many grant-awarding panels of PPARC and its predecessors in the UK.
  • 1993-97: Member, Fundamental Physics Advisory Group, European Space Agency
  • 1990-92: Member, Council of the Royal Astronomical Society 

Contact Details

Email [email protected]
Telephone +44 29208 74000 ext 77329

Research themes

Gravitational waves research pioneer honoured by Royal Society

Gravitational waves research pioneer honoured by Royal Society

27 August 2025

Cardiff University celebrates 50 years of gravity research

Cardiff University celebrates 50 years of gravity research

19 July 2024

Fellowship for pioneer of gravitational wave astronomy

Fellowship for pioneer of gravitational wave astronomy

10 May 2021

External profiles