Mordehai "Moti" Milgrom is an Israeli physicist and professor in the department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel.
He received his first degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1966. Later he studied at the Weizmann Institute of Science and completed his doctorate in 1972. In 1981, he proposed Modified Newtonian dynamics as an alternative to the dark matter and galaxy rotation curve problems. Milgrom suggests that Newton's Second Law be modified for very small accelerations. In the academic years 1980–1981 and 1985–1986 he was at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Before 1980 he worked primarily on high-energy astrophysics and became well-known for his kinematical model of SS 433.
Modified Newtonian dynamics is solely the invention of Mordehai Milgrom. The idea of an acceleration-based modification of dynamics or gravity would have probably occurred to someone else sooner or later, but it is safe to say that in the early 1980s no one but Milgrom had considered such a possible modification as an alternative to astrophysical dark matter. It was a brilliant stroke of insight to realize that astronomical systems were not only characterized by large scale but also by low internal accelerations and this could account for the known systematics in the kinematics and photometry of galactic systems. However, the idea was hardly greeted with overwhelming enthusiasm.
Milgrom is married and has three daughters.
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1946
