The International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation (ISGRG) is a learned society with the goal to promote research on general relativity

General relativity

General relativity or the general theory of relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916. It is the current description of gravitation in modern physics...

 (GR) and gravitation

Gravitation

Gravitation, or gravity, is a natural phenomenon by which physical bodies attract with a force proportional to their mass. Gravitation is most familiar as the agent that gives weight to objects with mass and causes them to fall to the ground when dropped...

. To that end, it encourages communication between relativity researchers, in particular by organizing the triennial international GR conferences, and publishing the journal General Relativity and Gravitation

General Relativity and Gravitation

General Relativity and Gravitation is a monthly, peer reviewed scientific journal. It was established in 1970, and is published by Springer on behalf of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation. The two editors in chief are G.F.R. Ellis and H. Nicolai...

. The society also serves as the Affiliated Commission 2 (AC.2) of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics

International Union of Pure and Applied Physics

The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics is an international non-governmental organization devoted to the advancement of physics...

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The society's president is always a prominent relativity researcher. In the past, the office has been held by Christian Møller

Christian Møller

Christian Møller was a Danish chemist and physicist who made fundamental contributions to the theory of relativity, theory of gravitation and quantum chemistry...

 (1971-74), Nathan Rosen

Nathan Rosen

Nathan Rosen was an American-Israeli physicist noted for his study on the structure of the hydrogen molecule and his work with Albert Einstein and Boris Podolsky on entangled wave functions and the EPR paradox.-Background:Nathan Rosen was born into a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York...

 (1974-77), Peter Bergmann

Peter Bergmann

Peter Gabriel Bergmann was a German-American physicist best known for his work with Albert Einstein on a unified field theory encompassing all physical interactions...

 (1977-80), Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat

Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat

Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat is a French mathematician and physicist. She was the first woman to be elected to the Académie des Sciences Française and is a Grand Officier of the Légion d'honneur....

 (1980-83), Dennis Sciama (1983-86), Ezra Ted Newman (1986-89), George Ellis (1989-92), Roger Penrose

Roger Penrose

Sir Roger Penrose OM FRS is an English mathematical physicist and Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford and Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College...

 (1992-95), Jürgen Ehlers

Jürgen Ehlers

Jürgen Ehlers was a German physicist who made notable contributions to the current understanding of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity...

 (1995-8), Werner Israel

Werner Israel

Werner Israel, OC, FRSC, FRS is a Canadian physicist.Born in Berlin, Germany and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, he received his B.Sc. in 1951 and his M.Sc. in 1954 from the University of Cape Town. He received his Ph.D...

 (1998-2001), Robert Wald

Robert Wald

Robert M. Wald is a physicist who specializes in general relativity and the thermodynamics of black holes. He is well known as the author of a widely used graduate textbook, General Relativity . Wald is a professor at the Enrico Fermi Institute and the University of Chicago...

 (2001-4) and Clifford Will (2004-7). The current president is Abhay Ashtekar

Abhay Ashtekar

Abhay Vasant Ashtekar is an Indian theoretical physicist. He is the Eberly Professor of Physics and the Director of the Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry at Pennsylvania State University. As the creator of Ashtekar variables, he is one of the founders of loop quantum gravity and its...

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The society has its governing bodies in the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 at Queen Mary, University of London

Queen Mary, University of London

Queen Mary, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London...

. Its archives are housed in the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics

Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics

The Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics is a Max Planck Institute whose research is aimed at investigating Einstein’s theory of relativity and beyond: Mathematics, quantum gravity, astrophysical relativity, and gravitational wave astronomy...

 in Potsdam

Potsdam

Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

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