Richard Feynman

Name: Richard Phillips Feynman

Born: May 11, 1918, in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York, USA

Death: February 15, 1988 (Age: 69)

Computer related contributions

• American theoretical physicist. Known for his work in particle physics, quantum mechanics, quantum electrodynamics, and the physics of supercooled liquid helium.
• Proposed the parton model.
• Developed a widely used pictorial representation scheme for the mathematical expressions governing the behavior of subatomic particles, which became known as Feynman diagrams.
• Assisted in the development of the atomic bomb and was a member of the panel that investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
• Credited with pioneering the field of quantum computing.
• Introduced the concept of nanotechnology.
• Became one of the best-known scientists in the world.

Significant publications

• No Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard Feynman (1996).
• Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher (1994).
• What Do You Care What Other People Think? (1988).
• Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (1985).

Honors and awards

• National Medal of Science (1979).
• Oersted Medal (1972).
• Nobel Prize in Physics (1965).
• E. O. Lawrence Award (1962).
• Albert Einstein Award (1954).
• Ranked as one of the ten greatest physicists of all time in a 1999 poll of 130 leading physicists worldwide by the British journal Physics World.
• Held the Richard Chace Tolman professorship in theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology.