James A. Isenberg

Isenberg was born in 1951. He became an Eagle Scout in 1966,{{Cite news|date=1966-02-09|title=3 Scouts to Get Eagle Awards at Jewish Center Program|pages=5|work=Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, The Evening News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91745887/3-scouts-to-get-eagle-awards-at-jewish/|access-date=2022-01-03}} and in 1969 graduated from Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania.{{cite web |date=2021|title=James A. Isenberg Curriculum Vitae|url=https://pages.uoregon.edu/isenberg/CV.pdf|access-date=January 3, 2022|website=uoregon.edu}}

When he ran the Boston Marathon at age 18, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported he "is 5 feet 1 inch tall, weighs 95 pounds and looks about 13."{{Cite news|date=1969-05-01|title=26-Mile Runner, 18, Had to Prove His Age|pages=81|work=The Philadelphia Inquirer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91746020/26-mile-runner-18-had-to-prove-his-age/|access-date=2022-01-03}}{{Cite news|date=1969-05-01|title=Runner Wears Birth Certificate|pages=83|work=The Philadelphia Inquirer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91745993/runner-wears-birth-certificate/|access-date=2022-01-03}} He wore his birth certificate pinned to his jersey to prove his age. Isenberg says he has "completed 143 marathons, including 30 Boston Marathons."{{cite web |title=Jim Isenberg's story|url=https://mageerehab.jeffersonhealth.org/patient-story/james-isenbergs-story/|access-date=2022-01-03|website=Magee Rehabilitation}}

At Princeton University he graduated with an A.B. in physics in 1973. He was a graduate student under Charles Misner at the University of Maryland, and he earned Ph.D. in physics in 1979, with his dissertation, Construction of Spacetimes from Initial Data.{{mathgenealogy|id=12931}}

In Australia in 2017, Isenberg was standing in the ocean when a wave knocked him over, injuring his spinal cord and leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. He has been recovering with therapy at Magee Rehabilitation Hospital in Philadelphia. In 2019 at the Princeton alumni parade, he "led his class down the route in a wheelchair".{{cite web |date=2019-07-03|title=Reunited!|url=https://paw.princeton.edu/article/reunited|access-date=2022-01-03|website=Princeton Alumni Weekly|language=en}}

Isenberg lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with his wife, economist Pauline Kennedy.

Isenberg is one of the pioneers in the study of the constraint equations in classical general relativity.{{Cite journal|last=Isenberg|first=James|date=1995|title=Constant mean curvature solutions of the Einstein constraint equations on closed manifolds|url=https://doi.org/10.1088/0264-9381/12/9/013|journal=Classical and Quantum Gravity|language=en|volume=12|issue=9|pages=2249–2274|doi=10.1088/0264-9381/12/9/013|bibcode=1995CQGra..12.2249I |issn=0264-9381}} His many important contributions include the completion of the solution theory of the constraint equations on closed manifolds with constant mean curvature,{{Cite journal|last=Isenberg|first=James|date=1995|title=Constant mean curvature solutions of the Einstein constraint equations on closed manifolds|journal=Classical and Quantum Gravity|language=en|volume=12|issue=9|pages=2249–2274|doi=10.1088/0264-9381/12/9/013|bibcode=1995CQGra..12.2249I |issn=0264-9381}} and with his collaborators, the first nontrivial results on the non-constant mean curvature case.{{Citation|last1=Isenberg|first1=James|date=1994|work=Physics on Manifolds: Proceedings of the International Colloquium in honour of Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat, Paris, June 3–5, 1992|pages=295–302|editor-last=Flato|editor-first=M.|series=Mathematical Physics Studies|place=Dordrecht|publisher=Springer Netherlands|language=en|doi=10.1007/978-94-011-1938-2_21|isbn=978-94-011-1938-2|last2=Moncrief|first2=Vincent|title=Some Results on non Constant Mean Curvature Solutions of the Einstein Constraint Equations |editor2-last=Kerner|editor2-first=R.|editor3-last=Lichnerowicz|editor3-first=A.}}

From 1973 to 1979, Isenberg held positions in the physics department at the University of Maryland. Between 1979 and 1982 he held a postdoctoral fellow positions in the applied mathematics department of the University of Waterloo and the mathematics department at the University of California, Berkeley.

Isenberg joined the mathematics department faculty at the University of Oregon in 1982 and in 2021 became a professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of Oregon.{{cite web |title=Jim Isenberg named American Mathematical Society fellow {{!}} Institute for Fundamental Science|url=https://ifs.uoregon.edu/2021/01/20/jim-isenberg-named-american-mathematical-society-fellow/|access-date=2022-01-03|website=ifs.uoregon.edu}}

Isenberg was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2000, cite "For his pioneering work on global issues in general relativity and for his contributions to the field."{{cite web |title=APS Fellow Archive|url=http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/fellowships/archive-all.cfm|access-date=2022-01-03|website=www.aps.org|language=en}}

He was named to the 2021 class of fellows of the American Mathematical Society "for contributions to mathematical general relativity and geometry flows".{{citation|url=https://www.ams.org/cgi-bin/fellows/fellows_by_year.cgi?year=2021|title=2021 Class of Fellows of the AMS|publisher=American Mathematical Society|access-date=2020-11-02}}

The Pacific Coast Gravity Meeting has been dedicated to Isenberg as of the 34th meeting at Caltech in 2018.{{citation|url=http://www.tapir.caltech.edu/~pcgm34/|title=34th Pacific Coast Gravity Meeting|access-date=2023-12-13}} The conference is now known as the Jim Isenberg Pacific Coast Gravity Meeting.{{citation|url=https://utahstatephysics.wixsite.com/35jimisenbergpcgm|title=35th Jim Isenberg Pacific Coast Gravity Meeting|access-date=2023-12-13}}{{citation|url=https://sgralla.arizona.edu/pcgm37/index.html|title=37th Jim Isenberg Pacific Coast Gravity Meeting|access-date=2023-12-13}}{{citation|url=https://qmap.ucdavis.edu/events/events-past-events/pcgm-2022|title=Jim Isenberg Pacific Coast Gravity Meeting 2022|access-date=2023-12-13}}

• [https://www.ams.org/bookstore-getitem/item=surv-206The Ricci Flow: Techniques and Applications: Part IV: Long-Time Solutions and Related Topics], American Math Society, (2015)
• {{cite journal | author=Isenberg, J. | title=Constant mean curvature solution of the Einstein constraint equations on closed manifold | journal=Class. Quantum Grav. | year=1995 | volume=12 | pages=2249–2274 | doi=10.1088/0264-9381/12/9/013|bibcode = 1995CQGra..12.2249I | issue=9 }}

{{reflist}}

• {{YouTube|id=6m53k7hZJTU|title=Jim Isenberg - The Conformal Method and Solutions of the Einstein Constraint Equation}} (video, 1:01:12 hours)
• {{YouTube|id=hdO9T8A9js4|title=Symmetries of Cosmological Cauchy Horizons with Non-Closed Orbits - Jim Isenberg}} (video, 38:43 minutes)
• {{YouTube|id=hwOCqA9Xw6A|title=Ricci Flow - Numberphile}} (video, 14:40 minutes)
• {{YouTube|id=Some Recent Results on Ricci Flow - Jim Isenberg|title=Some Recent Results on Ricci Flow - Jim Isenberg}} (video, 1:00:00 hour)

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Category:21st-century American physicists

Category:American relativity theorists

Category:University of Maryland, College Park alumni

Category:University of Oregon faculty

Category:Living people

Category:People from Brownsville, Oregon

Category:Fellows of the American Mathematical Society

Category:1951 births

Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society