In memoriam: Paul Ellis

Professor Paul Ellis (physics) died suddenly of a heart attack Sunday, February 20, at his home in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. He was 63.

Born in Northampton, U.K., Ellis received an undergraduate degree in physics from the University of Bristol in 1962 and a doctorate in physics from the University of Manchester in 1966. He joined the University of Minnesota faculty in 1973.

A member of the department's nuclear physics group, Ellis studied the many-body theory of nuclei and nuclear matter at zero and finite temperature using relativistic approaches.

"Paul contributed significantly to our understanding of the microscopic structure of nuclei that form the cores of atoms," said physics professor Joseph Kapusta, a colleague and collaborator of Ellis. "He also deepened our knowledge of exploding stars and the remnants they leave behind, called neutron stars."

Ellis published more than 100 original research articles and coedited the first two volumes of Trends in Theoretical Physics, the first in a series associated with the University's Theoretical Physics Institute. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physics Society in 1998 and received the college's Best Instructor Award in physics for 1980-81.

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