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A Lowbrow’s View of Feynman

FEB 01, 1989

Feynman’s theoretical concepts opened up research opportunities for experimenters, and his approach to physics dignified the role played by their work.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881197

Valentine L. Telegdi

I learned by accident that PHYSICS TODAY was preparing a special issue in memory of Richard Feynman, whose death about a year ago shocked his fellow physicists worldwide so deeply. In looking at the tentative list of contributors to the memorial issue, I noticed with surprise that it consisted almost entirely of theoretical physicists. While eminent theorists obviously were best qualified to eulogize Feynman’s extraordinary contributions to their own specialty, something essential might have been lost to the readers by this restricted choice. Feynman was not a theorist’s theorist, but a physicist’s physicist and a teacher’s teacher.

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More about the authors

Valentine L. Telegdi, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zurich, Switzerland.

© 1989 American Institute of Physics

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This Content Appeared In

Volume 42, Number 2

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