The Marcel Grossmann Meetings on Recent Developments in Theoretical and
Experimental
General Relativity, Astrophysics and Relativistic Field Theories have always had
the
goal of bringing together scientists from all over the world enabling them to
share recent
developments in general relativity and cosmology, paying attention to the
interplay between
physical predictions and mathematical
foundations.
[MG Meeting 1-16 prefaces: 1976-2021]
We were all attracted to GR for various reasons, some for the mathematics, more for the physics that the new age of relativistic astrophysics made possible and which this conference showcases.
Without the work of Ricci and Levi-civita built on their predecessors, and transmitted by Marcel Grossmann to Einstein, he would not have had to tools to formulate GR.
Without Roy Kerr's mathematical solution in 1963 built on the emerging interest in the mathematics of GR in the prior decade, reformulated by Boyer and Lindquist, the "golden age of relativity" could not have taken place, nor all of the active work in black hole physics and gravitational wave consequences in this past half century.
I don't apologize for being on the mathematical side of the
fence,
and wish to bring attention to the human side of our
joint endeavor.
Driven by the intellectual challenge of the math and science, we are drawn together in an international brotherhood that enriches our personal lives.