Richard Feynman

Richard Feynman
Feynman c. 1965
Born	Richard Phillips Feynman (1918-05-11)May 11, 1918 New York City, U.S.
Died	February 15, 1988(1988-02-15) (aged 69) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum
Education	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (SB) Princeton University (PhD)
Known for	Manhattan Project Acoustic wave equation Bethe–Feynman formula Feynman checkerboard Feynman diagrams Feynman gauge Feynman–Kac formula Feynman parametrization Feynman point Feynman propagator Feynman slash notation Feynman sprinkler Hellmann–Feynman theorem Heaviside-Feynman formula V−A theory Brownian ratchet Feynman–Stueckelberg interpretation Nanotechnology One-electron universe Parton Path integral formulation Playing the bongos Quantum cellular automata Quantum computing Quantum dissipation Quantum electrodynamics Quantum hydrodynamics Quantum logic gates Quantum turbulence Resummation Rogers Commission Shaft passer Sticky bead argument Synthetic molecular motor The Feynman Lectures on Physics Universal quantum simulator Vortex ring model Wheeler–Feynman absorber theory Variational perturbation theory
Spouses	Arline Greenbaum ​ ​ (m. 1942; died 1945)​ Mary Louise Bell ​ ​ (m. 1952; div. 1958)​ Gweneth Howarth ​ (m. 1960)​
Children	2
Awards	Albert Einstein Award (1954) E. O. Lawrence Award (1962) Nobel Prize in Physics (1965) Foreign Member of the Royal Society (1965) Oersted Medal (1972) National Medal of Science (1979)
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	James M. Bardeen Laurie Mark Brown Michael Cohen Thomas Curtright Albert Hibbs Giovanni Rossi Lomanitz George Zweig
Other notable students	Robert Barro W. Daniel Hillis Douglas D. Osheroff Paul Steinhardt Peter Shor Stephen Wolfram
Signature

Richard Phillips Feynman (/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, the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as his work in particle physics for which he proposed the parton model. For his 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 the seventh-greatest physicist of all time.^[1]

He assisted in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II and became known to the wider 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 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.