Education
Goldreich received a bachelor of science in engineering physics from Cornell University in 1960, and obtained a Doctor of Philosophy from Cornell in 1963 under the supervision of Thomas Gold.
Goldreich received a bachelor of science in engineering physics from Cornell University in 1960, and obtained a Doctor of Philosophy from Cornell in 1963 under the supervision of Thomas Gold.
He is currently the Lee DuBridge Professor of Astrophysics and Planetary Physics at California Institute of Technology. Since 2005 he has also been a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Asteroid 3805 Goldreich is named after him.
In 1963 and 1964 Goldreich was a postdoctoral fellow at Cambridge University.
From 1964 to 1966 he was an Assistant Professor of Astronomy & Geophysics at University of California, Los Los Angeles Goldreich joined the faculty at Caltech in 1966 as an associate professor He later became a full professor in 1969 while remaining at Caltech, and in 1981 he became the Lee A. DuBridge Professor of Astrophysics & Planetary Physics also at Caltech.
Goldreich and Alar Toomre first described the process of polar wander in a 1969 paper, although evidence of paleomagnetism was not discovered until later. Goldreich collaborated with George Abell to conclude that planetary nebulae evolved from red giant stars, a view that is now widely accepted.
In 1979 Goldreich, along with Scott Tremaine predicted that Saturn"s F ring was maintained by shepherd moons, a prediction that would be confirmed by observations in 1980.
They also predicted that Uranus" rings were held in place by similar shepherd moons, a prediction that was confirmed in 1986. Goldreich, along with Tremaine predicted planetary migration in 1980, which would later be invoked to explain hot jupiters.
Royal Society; National Academy of Sciences]
Foreign Member of the Royal Society, 2004.