Frans Pretorius

Frans Pretorius is a Professor of Physics at Princeton University, affiliated with the Department of Physics. He holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. His research focuses on Einstein's theory of general relativity, particularly black holes, gravitational waves from binary compact object mergers, and critical phenomena in gravitational collapse. He also explores higher-dimensional black hole dynamics and cosmological singularities.

Key awards include the Dirac Medal (2021), Galileo Galilei Medal (2021), and New Horizons Prize in Physics (2016). He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation. Pretorius advises three graduate students: Zack Gelles, Hengrui Zhu, and Josef Zimmerman. His work often involves numerical relativity and computational methods, as seen in his studies of black hole mergers and spacetime dynamics.