Dutch astronomer Willem De Sitter.
Perhaps I missed it, but I never saw an explanation of Ross's choice of the name De Sitter. Here it is. What confuses me, however, is that De Sitter space appears to have some connection to string theory, but Ross said he thought string theory was BS.
Recent observations have raised the stakes for ideas like holography and black hole information. The results suggest that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. If it goes on, astronomers say, distant galaxies will eventually be moving away so fast that we will not be able to see them anymore.
Living in such a universe is like being surrounded by a horizon, glowing just like a black hole horizon, over which information is forever disappearing. And since this horizon has a finite size, physicists say, there is a limit to the amount of complexity and information the universe can hold, ultimately dooming life.
Physicists admit that they do not know how to practice physics or string theory in such a space, called a de Sitter space after the Dutch astronomer Willem de Sitter, who first solved Einstein's equations to find such a space. "De Sitter space is a new frontier," said Dr. Strominger, who hopes that the techniques and attention that were devoted to black holes in the last decade will enable physicists to make headway in understanding a universe that may actually represent the human condition.