Feynman

Richard Phillips Feynman

Born: 11 May 1918 in New York. USA
Died: 15 Feb 1988 in Los Angeles, California, USA

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Richard Feynman studied at MIT and received his doctorate fom 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 carer.

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.

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).

References:

  1. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica
  2. J Gleick, Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman (1992).
  3. S S Schweber, QED and the men who made it : Dyson, Feynman, Schwinger, and Tomonaga (Princeton, 1994).
  4. J Mehra, The beat of a different drum : the life and science of Richard Feynman (Oxford, 1994).
  5. L M Brown and J S Rigden, 'Most of the good stuff' : memories of Richard Feynman (New York, 1993).
  6. C Sykes, No ordinary genius : the illustrated Richard Feynman (London, 1994).
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JOC/EFR February 1996