Richard Feynman
|
|
---|---|
Born |
Richard Phillips Feynman
May 11, 1918 New York City, U.S.
|
Died | February 15, 1988 (aged 69) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
|
Resting place | Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum, Altadena, California, U.S. |
Other names | Dick Feynman |
Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (S.B. 1939) Princeton University (Ph.D. 1942) |
Known for | |
Spouse(s) |
Arline Greenbaum
(m. 1941; died 1945) Mary Louise Bell (m. 1952–1956)
Gweneth Howarth (m. 1960)
|
Children | 2 |
Awards |
|
Scientific career | |
Fields | Theoretical physics |
Institutions | Cornell University California Institute of Technology |
Thesis | The Principle of Least Action in Quantum Mechanics (1942) |
Doctoral advisor | John Archibald Wheeler |
Doctoral students | |
Other notable students | |
Signature | |
Richard Phillips Feynman, ForMemRS (/ˈfaɪnmən/; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist, known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics for which he proposed the parton model. For contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 jointly with Julian Schwinger and Shin'ichirō Tomonaga.
Feynman developed a widely used pictorial representation scheme for the mathematical expressions describing the behavior of subatomic particles, which later became known as Feynman diagrams. During his lifetime, Feynman became one of the best-known scientists in the world. In a 1999 poll of 130 leading physicists worldwide by the British journal Physics World, he was ranked as one of the ten greatest physicists of all time.
He assisted in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II and became known to a wide public in the 1980s as a member of the Rogers Commission, the panel that investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Along with his work in theoretical physics, Feynman has been credited with pioneering the field of quantum computing and introducing the concept of nanotechnology. He held the Richard C. Tolman professorship in theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology.
Feynman was a keen popularizer of physics through both books and lectures, including a 1959 talk on top-down nanotechnology called There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom and the three-volume publication of his undergraduate lectures, The Feynman Lectures on Physics. Feynman also became known through his semi-autobiographical books Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! and What Do You Care What Other People Think?, and books written about him such as Tuva or Bust! by Ralph Leighton and the biography Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by James Gleick.
- The theory of a general quantum system interacting with a linear dissipative system
- There's plenty of room at the bottom
- Radiative corrections to Compton scattering
- Cargo cult science
- Theory of inelastic scattering of cold neutrons from liquid helium
- The dignified professor
- An Historic Moment in Physics
- What is Science?
- Quantum-mechanical computers
- The Computing Machines in the Future
- Quantum theory of gravitation
- The development of the space-time view of quantum electrodynamics
- Geometrical representation of the Schrödinger equation for solving maser problems
- Forces in molecules
- A relativistic cut-off for classical electrodynamics
- Relativistic cut-off for quantum electrodynamics
- The theory of positrons
- Mathematical formulation of the quantum theory of electromagnetic interaction
- An operator calculus having applications in quantum electrodynamics
- Slow electrons in a polar crystal
- Mobility of slow electrons in a polar crystal
- Effective classical partition functions
- Quantum-chromodynamic approach for the large-transverse-momentum production of particles and jets
- Group U (6)⊗ U (6) Generated by Current Components
- Very high-energy collisions of hadrons
- Space-time approach to non-relativistic quantum mechanics
- Quark elastic scattering as a source of high-transverse-momentum mesons
- Infinitesimal machinery
- The Problem of Teaching Physics in Latin America
- The concept of probability in quantum mechanics
- Space-time approach to quantum electrodynamics
- Appendix F: Personal Observations on the Reliability of the Shuttle
- The relation of science and religion
- Classical electrodynamics in terms of direct interparticle action
- The value of science
- Simulating Physics with Computers
- Velocity Acquired by an Electron in a Finite Electric Field in a Polar Crystal
- Interaction with the absorber as the mechanism of radiation