He graduated in physics with a BS in 1976 and a PhD in 1981 from California Institute of Technology (Caltech).[1] His PhD thesis entitled Nuclear weak interaction rates during stellar evolution and collapse was supervised by William A. Fowler.[3] Fuller was from 1981 to 1983 a Robert R. McCormick Fellow at the University of Chicago (where he worked with Schramm and Arnett) and from 1983 to 1984 a postdoctoral visiting research astrophysicist at UC Santa Cruz's Lick Observatory (where he worked with Woosley). Fuller was from 1985 to 1986 a research assistant professor at the University of Washington's Institute for Nuclear Theory and from 1986 to 1988 a staff member in the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP) astrophysics group at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. In the department of physics of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) he was from 1988 to 1992 an associate professor and is since 1992 a full professor. At UCSD he is now a distinguished professor of physics and the director of the Center for Astrophysics and Space Science (CASS).[2] He was one of six UCSD scientists (including Brian Keating) involved in the early stages of the international collaboration for the POLARBEAR experiment.[4]
Fuller's work has revolved around the interplay of the weak interaction, nuclei, and gravitation in the cosmos. The recent focus of his work has been on neutrino physics, in particular the role of neutrino mass and flavor mixing in the early universe and in core collapse supernovae, the synthesis of the light and heavy nuclei, and cosmology.[1]
For outstanding contributions to nuclear astrophysics, especially his seminal work on weak interaction rates for stellar evolution and collapse and his pioneering research on neutrino flavor-mixing in supernovae.[1]
Grohs, Evan B.; Richard Bond, J.; Cooke, Ryan J.; Fuller, George M.; Meyers, Joel; Paris, Mark W. (2019). "Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and Neutrino Cosmology". Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society. 51 (3): 412. arXiv:1903.09187. Bibcode:2019BAAS...51c.412G.
Mezzacappa, Anthony; Fuller, George M., eds. (2005). Open Issues in Core Collapse Supernova Theory. Proceedings from the Institute for Nuclear Theory, University of Washington, Seattle, 22–24 June 2004 — vol. 14. Singapore: World Scientific. ISBN978-981-270-344-6.
