1928 – 2015
Felix Pirani (1928–2015) was a British theoretical physicist and philosopher of physics known for foundational work on general relativity and gravitational radiation. He contributed to the geometric understanding of spacetime and to debates over the operational foundations of relativistic measurement.
Co-developed the Pirani classification of the Weyl tensor for gravitational fields
Provided an early rigorous account of gravitational radiation and its physical detectability
Argued that mensuration in relativity need not depend on clocks and rigid bodies
Contributed to the Bondi–Pirani–Robinson work on plane gravitational waves
Advanced geometric and operational foundations of general relativity