Patricio Letelier

Patricio Anibal Letelier Sotomayor (September 11, 1943 – June 9, 2011) was a Chilean mathematical physicist and professor at University of Campinas (UNICAMP).

Work
Letelier was born in Santiago. Early in his career (1993) Letelier worked with Dmitrii Vladimirovich Gal'tsov to define what has become known as the Letelier-Gal'tsov spacetime. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from the Boston University in 1977 under John Stachel. He joined the faculty of the University of Brasília until 1988 when became a Professor of Mathematical Physics in the Department of Applied Mathematics of UNICAMP.

His last published work is a study of the three-body problem with Tiago Amancio da Silva. See also the Tom Banks paper "A Critique of Pure String Theory: Heterodox Opinions of Diverse Dimensions." published in 2003.

He died on Thursday, June 9, 2011 of a cardiac arrest in his home in Campinas.

In honor of his work, an astronomer he advised for a doctor thesis, named an asteroid he had discovered after Letelier: (109879) Letelier.