Felix Arnold Edward Pirani was a British theoretical physicist, and professor at King's College London, specialising in gravitational physics and general relativity.
11 Facts About Felix Pirani
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Felix Pirani was born in England, to parents who were both musicians.
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Felix Pirani studied at the University of Western Ontario, the University of Toronto.
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Felix Pirani obtained a PhD in physics at Cambridge University in 1956 under Hermann Bondi.
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Felix Pirani performed post-doctoral research at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Dublin.
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In 1957 Felix Pirani independently discovered what was later called the Petrov classification and separately discovered by Petrov in 1954.
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In 1960 Felix Pirani revised the general audience book "The ABC of Relativity", originally written by Bertrand Russell in 1925.
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Felix Pirani was politically active in the 1970s and 1980s, had a left leaning stance, and opposed the unchecked use of science for military purposes.
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In 1971 Felix Pirani told the New Scientist that during an academic visit to the University of North Carolina issues about slavery and the American Civil War "hit him in the face" and upon his return to England he joined the Scientists of the Left and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and became a political activist.
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Felix Pirani studied disarmament and founded the Science Forum as a group of scientists that met monthly in London to discuss the social problems of science.
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Felix Pirani's efforts were based on his view that the public belief that "science will solve the world's problems" is a delusion because funding for research comes from the top levels of the social hierarchy, which controls the direction of scientific progress for its own purposes.