In the Dark

I was very sad this morning to hear via George Ellis of the death at the age of 84 of David Matravers. A South African by borth, David moved to (then) Portsmouth Polytechnic in 1990, just before it became the University of Portsmouth, where he set up a group in cosmology and relativity with the Mathematics Department. Though initially small, that group grew steadily branching out into other areas, including observational cosmology, and became, in 2002, the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation which is recognized throughout the world as a centre of excellence in research. I see it did particularly well in the recent Research Excellence Framework, for example.

NOTE: I am grateful to David Wands for pointing out that David Matravers wasn’t the first Director of the ICG as I said in an earlier version of this post: that was Roy Maartens. David Matravers actually retired just as the ICG was being set up but played a huge role in its creation.

David Matravers is rightly regarded as its founding father of research in cosmology and gravitation at Portsmouth. He therefore leaves a wonderful legacy not only in the ICG itself but in the many alumni who have passed through it at various stages of their careers and are now carrying on their work all around the globe.

During the 1990s I saw David Matravers quite regularly as he visited Queen Mary & Westfield College where I was working at the time to attend our relativity seminars and talk to the relativity group. He was a very cheerful and engaging chap who was always keen to encourage early career researchers. I was in that category at the time and, although I never worked directly with David, he was always very kind and supportive to me. What struck me in particular about him were his enthusiasm and determination, which is no doubt why he was so successful at building up the ICG from scratch. He will be greatly missed.

My condolences to his friends, colleagues and family.

Rest in peace, David Matravers (1937-2022).