Rainer Spurzem
Encyclopedia
Rainer Spurzem is a German
astronomer
at the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut in Heidelberg
, Germany. His speciality is the N-body simulation
of galaxies and star clusters.
With Sverre Aarseth, he was the first to simulate core collapse of a star cluster using a direct N-body algorithm on a Cray supercomputer.
Rainer Spurzem is a leader of the GRACE project, which uses reconfigurable hardware for astrophysical particle simulations. The GRACE project was funded via grants from the Volkswagen Foundation
and from the Ministry of Science, Research and Art of Baden-Württemberg
. He also designed gravitySimulator
, a special-purpose computer based on GRAPE
accelerator boards at the Rochester Institute of Technology
.
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...
astronomer
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
at the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut in Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
, Germany. His speciality is the N-body simulation
N-body simulation
An N-body simulation is a simulation of a dynamical system of particles, usually under the influence of physical forces, such as gravity . In cosmology, they are used to study processes of non-linear structure formation such as the process of forming galaxy filaments and galaxy halos from dark...
of galaxies and star clusters.
With Sverre Aarseth, he was the first to simulate core collapse of a star cluster using a direct N-body algorithm on a Cray supercomputer.
Rainer Spurzem is a leader of the GRACE project, which uses reconfigurable hardware for astrophysical particle simulations. The GRACE project was funded via grants from the Volkswagen Foundation
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
and from the Ministry of Science, Research and Art of Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
. He also designed gravitySimulator
GravitySimulator
gravitySimulator is a novel supercomputer that incorporates special-purpose GRAPE hardware to solve the gravitational N-body problem. It is housed in the Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation at the Rochester Institute of Technology...
, a special-purpose computer based on GRAPE
Gravity Pipe
Gravity Pipe, otherwise known as GRAPE, is a project which uses hardware acceleration to perform gravitational computations. Integrated with Beowulf-style commodity computers, the GRAPE system calculates the force of gravity that a given mass, such as a star, exerts on others...
accelerator boards at the Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester Institute of Technology
The Rochester Institute of Technology is a private university, located within the town of Henrietta in metropolitan Rochester, New York, United States...
.