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Tuesday, March 5, 1991 / University Daily Kansar
KU physics prof tries to master the universe
Adrian Melott, associate professor of physics and astronomy, is an international scholar and Unitarian minister. He enjoys teaching the introductory physics course for non-science majors because he can share his passion for physics.
Melott helped create cosmic sponge model
By Benjamin W. Allen
Kansas staff writer
Kansan staff writer
Adrian Melott kicks off his boots, puts his feet on his desk, his hands on his head and leans back — way back — until he is almost horizontal, looking up.
"I do some of my best thinking this way," he said. "This is my research posture."
Melott, an associate professor of astronomy and physics at the University of Kansas
Whether he is looking up to see the cosmos, God or just the ceiling is anyone's guess. One thing is sure though: Melott's best thinking about the universe and how it was formed.
Melott's area of research is large-scale structures in the universe, or cosmology, which means looking at the universe as a whole. What he does on the job is try to picture what the universe looks like and how it got that way.
He may be uniquely qualified for that puzzle.
Not only does Melott have a bachelor's,
master's and doctorate degree in physics, he also has a master's in divinity and is a Unitarian-Universalist minister.
A diverse past
Melott spent seven years as a practicing minister after he received his degree in divinity from the Starr King School of Religious Leadership in Berkeley, Calif.
"It was the times," he said. "I was interested in being a generalist. I was student body president, and I was active in the anti-war movement — movement. Nestalia Storgt, Vietnam."
'1 was interested in educational reform,
and I wanted to work with people. All that led to
me being a teacher.'
However, he halfway through his career as a minister he began to drift back toward philosophy.
"G God spoke to me in a dream and said, 'do cosmology,' Melted as a smile touched me."
"No, really it was not sudden at all," he said. "It was really quite gradual."
A member of his congregation was teaching a course in general relativity at the University of South Florida in Tampa and Melott if he would like to audit the 1985.
"I did it, and I decided that if I was going to run on it, I might as well sign up for it," he said.
Three years later, Melott had taken every course the university offered for a master's degree.
He then went to the University of Texas at Austin and earned his doctorate in physics in 1967.
Since that time, he has had a postdoctoral position at the University of Pittsburg and an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh.
city of Chicago. He also has been a Visiting Fellow at the department of astrophysics at Oxford University and a research visitor at Moscow University.
As Melott studied cosmology, he drifted away from active ministry. Today he rarely goes to services and performs about two marriages a year.
"I guess, formally speaking, I'm not really religious in a traditional sense." Melett said. "I'm interested in how the universe works and learning about it, and I would call that a religious activity — just as many things are."
A spongy universe
The problem in cosmology is trying to figure out where structures in the galaxy occur. This has been a major challenge.
In the big bang theory, all matter explodes outward in all directions. If it was a perfect explosion, the result would be an ever-expanding universe of uniformly distributed matter. But just by looking up into the sky, we can see that our universe form. It is what cosmologists call "lumyn."
Melott's research led him in 1985 to propose, with Richard Gott III of Princeton University, a picture of the universe now referred to as the sponge model.
In the sponge model, all the empty spaces of the universe are connected and so is the mass. The sponge model is one of the more recent models of the universe and is now a
Melott said ordinary objects were used to describe the universe.
"The purpose is to give people a picture they can associate with the theory," he said. "You don't need to give anything fancy to do that, just describing shape that people understand."
Formerly, two theoretical extremes describing what the universe looks like, the pancake and hierarchy models, were considered the most likely.
"Very approximately you can think of the pancake theory as big sheets of stuff collapses under pressure."
"The hierarchy theory imagines lots of little lumps in the early universe that coalesce into slightly bigger lumps that coalesce into slightly bigger lumps," he said. "A chain reaction that builds it up slowly from a smooth universe."
However, Melott said the observable universe seems to be somewhere between those two models. The sponge model is more closely related to correspond more closely with observable astronomical
data.
Melot works to understand the structure of what the universe looks like now, because that structure suggests what happened moments after the big ban and vice versa.
He explains the lumpiness of the universe as a result of the natural "noise" that existed just after the big bang. At that time, elementary particles were all that existed. "Noise" refers to the imperfections in a natural system.
He said any debate among Unitarians who are trying to define whether they were Christians or not probably would break down an argument about what a Christian was.
"It sounds really mind-boggling, but superclusters of galaxies may be the result of just noise from elementary particles after the big bang."
"Nothing is ever perfectly smooth," Melott said. "There are always little fluctuations, but I have been very careful."
Science and religion
Melott explains he always has had a combination of science and religion in his life, and they do not conflict with each other.
"Unitarians are all over the map." he said
"They can range from Christians to atheists. Let me put it this way: a fanatical Uitarian would burn a question mark on your front lawn.
"Or, what happens when you cross a Jehovah's Witness with a Unitarian? You get a guy that knocks on your door and doesn't know what to say.
"These jokes probably convey the nature of militarism - better than a long winded etude."
Internationally known
John Davidson, professor of physics and astronomy, was the chairperson of the department when Melott was hired in fall of 1986.
Davidson said Melott impressed the search committee, Oxford and his study, and his experience with Oxford and the Sorry
"He has immense international contacts," Dudson said. "He seems to know every生动情况."
"Basically he opened up a new area of physics for our department," he said. "He was instrumental in bringing Sergei Shandarin here."
Shandarin, visiting assistant professor of physics and astronomy from Moscow University, is an example of the internationalism Melott has brought to the University.
Shandarin said cosmology was a very active field of study.
"What cosmologists are trying to do is merge particle physics with galaxy formation," he said "The science about the largest clusters in the universe, with the science about the smallest things."
Shandarin recently has been hired for a permanent professorship.
Bruce Twarog, associate professor of physics and astronomy, said Melot's background was so broad that he brought a unique perspective to the department.
"He's very aggressive with his outside contacts." Twarog said. "He works a lot to bring outside people to the department. It gives us national and international prestige."
Davidson said Melot liked to teach the introductory physics class for non-science
"The students seem to love it," Davidson said. "Physics is usually that subject问题."
"Physics for poets," as the introductory course is called in the physics and astronomy department, has provided Melott with unexcited enthusiasm and to show his enthusiasm for the subject.
Twarog said Melotw owed students with a demonstration of angular momentum in which Melotw held weights away from his body and spun on a swivel chair.
As he pulled the weights in, his spun faster,
we see skaters spin quickly when they pull
their muscles.
Twarog said Melotl did not realize how fast he would spin and fell hard in front of the chair.
"It's the kind of stuff students love," Twarog said. "A faculty member injuring himself in front of the class."
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