Died: 15 Feb 1988 in Los Angeles, California, USA
Richard Feynman studied at MIT and received his doctorate from Princeton
in 1942.His doctoral
work developed a new approach to quantum mechanics using the principle
of least action. He
replaced the wave model of electromagnetics of Maxwell with a model
based on particle interactions
mapped into space - time.
Feynman worked on the atomic bomb project at Princeton University (1941-42)
and then at Los
Alamos (1943-45). After World War II he was appointed to the chair
of theoretical physics at
Cornell University, then, in 1950, to the chair of theoretical physics
at Caltech. He remained at
Caltech for the rest of his career.
Feynman's main contribution was to quantum mechanics, following on from
the work of his doctoral
thesis. He introduced diagrams (now called Feynman diagrams) that are
graphic analogues of the
mathematical expressions needed to describe the behaviour of systems
of interacting particles. For
this work he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1965, jointly with Schwinger
and Tomonoga.
Other work on particle spin and the theory of 'partons' which led to
the current theory of quarks
were fundamental in pushing forward an understanding of particle physics.
Feynman's books include many outstanding ones which evolved out of lecture
courses. For example
Quantum Electrodynamics (1961) and The Theory of Fundamental Processes
(1961), The
Feynman Lectures on Physics (1963-65) (3 volumes), The Character of
Physical Law (1965)
and QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (1985).
In [3] Gleick described Feynman's approach to science:-
So many of his witnesses observed the utter
freedom of his flights of thought, yet
when Feynman talked about his own methods
not freedom but constraint ... For
Feynman the essence of scientific imagination
was a powerful and almost painful
rule. What scientists create must match reality.
It must match what is already
known. scientific imagination, he said, is
imagination in a straitjacket ... The
rules of harmonic progression made for Mozart
a cage as unyielding as the
sonnet did for Shakespeare. As unyielding
and as liberating - for later critics
found the creator's genius in the counterpoint
of structure and freedom, rigour
and inventiveness.
Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
Nobel Prize Awarded 1965
Fellow of the Royal Society Elected 1965
Feynman online
Stockholm,
Sweden (A biography of Feynman and his Nobel prize presentation speech)
Boston
Globe (Obituary)
John
Talbot (The role of doubt in science)
Encyclopaedia
Britannica