Richard Feynman (1918–88)

Born on 11 May 1918 in New York City, Richard Feynman was a theoretical physicist who shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on quantum electrodynamics. Feynman earned a PhD in physics in 1942 from Princeton University, where he was recruited to join the Manhattan Project. After the war, he joined Hans Bethe at Cornell University. There, he developed path-integral and diagrammatic approaches to calculating how charged quantum particles behave in an electromagnetic field. For his work in developing quantum electrodynamics, he shared the 1965 Nobel with Julian Schwinger and Shinichiro Tomonaga. In the August 1966 issue of Physics Today, Feynman wrote about “the sequence of events , really the sequence of ideas, which occurred, and by which I finally came out the other end with an unsolved problem for which I ultimately received a prize.” Feynman was also a member of the Rogers Commission that investigated the explosion of space shuttle Challenger; he summed up his experiences in an article for Physics Today that ran in February 1988, the month he died at age 69.

Besides those and other contributions to theoretical physics, Feynman was an effective and enthusiastic teacher. His three-volume Feynman Lectures on Physics remains in print. Recordings of Feynman’s lectures are all over YouTube.

Shortly after Feynman’s death in 1988, Physics Today dedicated a special issue to the physicist. Most recently, Physics Today examined Feynman’s famed personality : Though he charmed some contemporaries, he was also prone to veering into self-absorption and the mistreatment of others, particularly those whom Feynman didn’t consider his equals.

Photo credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Segrè Collection

Date in History: 11 May 1918