Various:
Main
text currently adapted from Wikipedia John Archibald
Wheeler passed away yesterday after contracting pneumonia. He
is survived by two daughters, Alison Wheeler Lahnston and
Letitia Wheeler Ufford, and a son, James English Wheeler.
Wheeler was born in Jacksonville, Florida. He graduated
from the Baltimore City College high school in 1926 and
received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 1933.
His thesis, under the supervision of Karl Herzfeld, was on the
theory of the dispersion and adsorption of helium. Wheeler
married Janette Hegner in 1935 (who died last year).Wheeler
made important contributions to theoretical physics. In 1937 he
introduced the S-matrix, which became an indispensable tool in
particle physics. He was a pioneer in the theory of nuclear
fission, along with Niels Bohr and Enrico Fermi. In 1939 he
collaborated with Bohr on the liquid drop model of nuclear
fission."For me, he was the last Titan, the only physics
superhero still standing," Massachusetts Institute of
Technology scientist Max Tegmark told The New York
Times.Wheeler spent a significant part of his career as
professor of physics at Princeton University (1938-1976),
before joining the University of Texas at Austin. Wheeler's
graduate students include Richard Feynman, Kip Thorne, and Hugh
Everett, some of the most distinguished physicists of the
second half of the 20th century. Wheeler was renowned for his
teaching as well as his research. He was exemplary at finding
ways to convey complex ideas in understandable terms. Even
after he had achieved fame, he continued to teach freshman
physics, saying that the young minds were the most
important.Together with other leading physicists, during World
War II Wheeler interrupted his academic career to participate
in the development of the U.S. atomic bomb under the Manhattan
Project at the Hanford site, where reactors were constructed to
produce plutonium for the bomb which was to be dropped on the
Japanese city of Nagasaki. Even before the Hanford site started
up B-Pile (the first of three reactors), he had foreseen that
the accumulation of "fission product poisons" would interrupt
the ongoing nuclear chain reaction by absorbing neutrons and
correctly deduced (by calculating the half-life decay rates)
that an isotope of xenon (Xe135) was responsible. He went on to
work on the development of the American hydrogen bomb under
Project Matterhorn B.After concluding his Project Matterhorn
work, Wheeler returned to Princeton to resume his academic
career. In 1957, while working on extensions to general
relativity, he introduced the word wormhole to describe tunnels
in space-time.In the 1950s, he formulated geometrodynamics, a
program of physical and ontological reduction of every physical
phenomenon, such as gravitation and electromagnetism, to the
geometrical properties of a curved space-time. Aiming at a
systematical identification of matter with space,
geometrodynamics was often characterized as a continuation of
the philosophy of nature as conceived by Descartes and Spinoza.
Wheeler's geometrodynamics, however, failed to explain some
important physical phenomena, such as the existence of fermions
or that of gravitational singularities. Wheeler therefore
abandoned this theory in the early 1970s.His work in general
relativity included the theory of gravitational collapse; he
coined the term black hole in 1967 during a talk at the NASA
Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS). He was also a
pioneer in the field of quantum gravity with his development
(with Bryce DeWitt) of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation or, as he
calls it, the "wave function of the Universe."Recognizing
Wheeler's colorful way with words, characterized by such
confections as "mass without mass", the festschrift honoring
his 60th birthday was fittingly entitled Magic Without Magic:
John Archibald Wheeler: A collection of essays in honor of his
sixtieth birthday, Ed: John R. Klauder, (W. H. Freeman, 1972,
ISBN 0-7167-0337-8).John Wheeler was the driving force behind
the voluminous general relativity textbook Gravitation,
co-authored with Charles Misner and Kip Thorne. Its timely
appearance during the golden age of general relativity and
comprehensiveness made it the most influential relativity
textbook for a generation.Wheeler was awarded the Wolf Prize in
Physics in 1997. He maintained an office in Jadwin Hall at
Princeton up until 2006.
Related Physics Today articles"Mechanism of Fission,"
November 1967, p 49."To Joseph Henry," a poem by Wheeler,
February 1969, p 111."Introducing the Black Hole," written with
Ruffino, January 1971, p30
Review
of Wheeler's autobiography "Geons, Black Holes and Quantum
Foam: A Life in Physics", May 1999, p 63-64.
Related linksA 22-session interview with John Wheeler is
online
at the American Institute of Physics History Center. The
interview was conducted by Kenneth Ford, one of Wheeler's
students, as research for the latter's autobiography, Geons,
Black Holes, and Quantum Foam: A Life in Physics (Norton,
1998).
John
A. Wheeler, Physicist Who Coined the Term
âBlack Hole,' Is Dead at 96 (New York
Times)
Leading
physicist John Wheeler dies at age 96 (Princeton
University)
Books written by WheelerSpacetime Physics (1963, with
Edwin Taylor)Gravitation Theory and Gravitational Collapse
(1965)Einstein's Vision (1968)Gravitation (1973, with Misner
and Thorne)Frontiers of Time (1979)Quantum Theory and
Measurement (1983, with others)Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum
Foam (1998, memoir)Exploring Black Holes (2000, with Edwin
Taylor)Here is
the
description from one of Wheeler's colleague's posted last night
to the Cosmic Variance web site.One beautiful Fall day
seventeen years ago I wandered into an office and my life
profoundly changed. I was an undergraduate at Princeton, and
was looking for a thesis advisor. Jadwin Hall was an
intimidating place. Plenty of names familiar from my textbooks.
Nobel laureates scattered about. And we were expected to just
barge into their offices, and ask to work with them.One office
door was always open. As you walked by you could peek in, and
see its occupant hard at work. Hunched over his notebook,
scribbling away. Or standing by his bookcase, deep in thought.
Most often at the blackboard, chalk in hand. This was John
Archibald Wheeler, one of the legends of modern physics. He did
foundational work on quantum mechanics, collaborating with
Niels Bohr on some of the earliest work in nuclear fission. He
invented the S-matrix. He played important roles in both the
Manhattan project (atomic bomb) and the Matterhorn project
(Hydrogen bomb). He made major contributions to general
relativity, co-authoring with Charlie Misner and Kip Thorne the
bible of the field. He was legendary for his way with words,
coining such terms as wormholes, quantum foam, black holes, and
the wave function of the Universe (the Wheeler-DeWitt
equation). He trained generations of students; one of his first
was Richard Feynman.Fortunately, being a relatively clueless
20-year old, I was only dimly aware of these things. I was
interested in gravity and cosmology, and I had heard Wheeler
knew a thing or two about such topics. So I waltzed in, and
asked if he had any projects I could work on. I staggered out
of his office four hours later, laden with books, a clearly
defined project in my hands. For the ensuing two years I spent
essentially every weekday with Wheeler. Each morning I would
rush over to his office, always to be greeted the same way:
“What’s new?” I would have been up late the
night before, desperately trying to find something interesting
with which to answer that question. We would then spend hours
working together, going over my results, scrutinizing my
calculations, poring through the literature, brainstorming new
ideas. Wheeler gave me a direct and personal introduction to
the joys of research. We would break for lunch, and walk up to
the faculty club. I often had trouble keeping up with him. He
would always take the stairs (”No time to wait for an
elevator!”). He would hook his arm into the banisters,
and swing around, practically leaping from one flight to the
next. This was 1990; Wheeler was 80 years old.We would often
work all afternoon (with the occasional interruption, the
nuisance of having to leave for my class lectures). Every
evening I would walk with him from Jadwin up across the full
length of campus, to catch his bus. We would pass the corner of
Ivy lane and Washington road, where he had scratched 137 into
the concrete when they were pouring the sidewalk. We would pass
Jones Hall, where he used to discuss relativity with Einstein.
We would continue on through campus, crossing in front of
Nassau Hall. Wheeler would insist we walk diagonally to the far
gate, instead of exiting through the more convenient
FitzRandolph Gate. An Undergraduate was not meant to exit
FitzRandolph Gate until graduation, and Wheeler didn’t
want to be responsible for what might occur were I to break
tradition.For two years I sat at the foot of the master, and I
absorbed as much as I could. I learned about science, and about
life. Wheeler had broad interests. We would often discuss
biology, or history, or poetry. Over the ensuing years we kept
in touch. We collaborated together on Wheeler’s last
published paper.Yesterday I spent a couple of hours at
Wheeler’s bedside. I tried to say thank you. But it was
impossible to convey how much he means to me, and how grateful
I am to him. In that moment when I crossed the threshold to his
office, I was embarking on a new path. I am still on that path,
and every day I am grateful to him for showing me the way.John
Wheeler died this morning.
Wheeler was born in Jacksonville, Florida. He graduated
from the Baltimore City College high school in 1926 and
received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 1933.
His thesis, under the supervision of Karl Herzfeld, was on the
theory of the dispersion and adsorption of helium. Wheeler
married Janette Hegner in 1935 (who died last year).Wheeler
made important contributions to theoretical physics. In 1937 he
introduced the S-matrix, which became an indispensable tool in
particle physics. He was a pioneer in the theory of nuclear
fission, along with Niels Bohr and Enrico Fermi. In 1939 he
collaborated with Bohr on the liquid drop model of nuclear
fission."For me, he was the last Titan, the only physics
superhero still standing," Massachusetts Institute of
Technology scientist Max Tegmark told The New York
Times.Wheeler spent a significant part of his career as
professor of physics at Princeton University (1938-1976),
before joining the University of Texas at Austin. Wheeler's
graduate students include Richard Feynman, Kip Thorne, and Hugh
Everett, some of the most distinguished physicists of the
second half of the 20th century. Wheeler was renowned for his
teaching as well as his research. He was exemplary at finding
ways to convey complex ideas in understandable terms. Even
after he had achieved fame, he continued to teach freshman
physics, saying that the young minds were the most
important.Together with other leading physicists, during World
War II Wheeler interrupted his academic career to participate
in the development of the U.S. atomic bomb under the Manhattan
Project at the Hanford site, where reactors were constructed to
produce plutonium for the bomb which was to be dropped on the
Japanese city of Nagasaki. Even before the Hanford site started
up B-Pile (the first of three reactors), he had foreseen that
the accumulation of "fission product poisons" would interrupt
the ongoing nuclear chain reaction by absorbing neutrons and
correctly deduced (by calculating the half-life decay rates)
that an isotope of xenon (Xe135) was responsible. He went on to
work on the development of the American hydrogen bomb under
Project Matterhorn B.After concluding his Project Matterhorn
work, Wheeler returned to Princeton to resume his academic
career. In 1957, while working on extensions to general
relativity, he introduced the word wormhole to describe tunnels
in space-time.In the 1950s, he formulated geometrodynamics, a
program of physical and ontological reduction of every physical
phenomenon, such as gravitation and electromagnetism, to the
geometrical properties of a curved space-time. Aiming at a
systematical identification of matter with space,
geometrodynamics was often characterized as a continuation of
the philosophy of nature as conceived by Descartes and Spinoza.
Wheeler's geometrodynamics, however, failed to explain some
important physical phenomena, such as the existence of fermions
or that of gravitational singularities. Wheeler therefore
abandoned this theory in the early 1970s.His work in general
relativity included the theory of gravitational collapse; he
coined the term black hole in 1967 during a talk at the NASA
Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS). He was also a
pioneer in the field of quantum gravity with his development
(with Bryce DeWitt) of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation or, as he
calls it, the "wave function of the Universe."Recognizing
Wheeler's colorful way with words, characterized by such
confections as "mass without mass", the festschrift honoring
his 60th birthday was fittingly entitled Magic Without Magic:
John Archibald Wheeler: A collection of essays in honor of his
sixtieth birthday, Ed: John R. Klauder, (W. H. Freeman, 1972,
ISBN 0-7167-0337-8).John Wheeler was the driving force behind
the voluminous general relativity textbook Gravitation,
co-authored with Charles Misner and Kip Thorne. Its timely
appearance during the golden age of general relativity and
comprehensiveness made it the most influential relativity
textbook for a generation.Wheeler was awarded the Wolf Prize in
Physics in 1997. He maintained an office in Jadwin Hall at
Princeton up until 2006.
Related Physics Today articles"Mechanism of Fission,"
November 1967, p 49."To Joseph Henry," a poem by Wheeler,
February 1969, p 111."Introducing the Black Hole," written with
Ruffino, January 1971, p30
Review
of Wheeler's autobiography "Geons, Black Holes and Quantum
Foam: A Life in Physics", May 1999, p 63-64.
Related linksA 22-session interview with John Wheeler is
online
at the American Institute of Physics History Center. The
interview was conducted by Kenneth Ford, one of Wheeler's
students, as research for the latter's autobiography, Geons,
Black Holes, and Quantum Foam: A Life in Physics (Norton,
1998).
John
A. Wheeler, Physicist Who Coined the Term
âBlack Hole,' Is Dead at 96 (New York
Times)
Leading
physicist John Wheeler dies at age 96 (Princeton
University)
Books written by WheelerSpacetime Physics (1963, with
Edwin Taylor)Gravitation Theory and Gravitational Collapse
(1965)Einstein's Vision (1968)Gravitation (1973, with Misner
and Thorne)Frontiers of Time (1979)Quantum Theory and
Measurement (1983, with others)Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum
Foam (1998, memoir)Exploring Black Holes (2000, with Edwin
Taylor)Here is
the
description from one of Wheeler's colleague's posted last night
to the Cosmic Variance web site.One beautiful Fall day
seventeen years ago I wandered into an office and my life
profoundly changed. I was an undergraduate at Princeton, and
was looking for a thesis advisor. Jadwin Hall was an
intimidating place. Plenty of names familiar from my textbooks.
Nobel laureates scattered about. And we were expected to just
barge into their offices, and ask to work with them.One office
door was always open. As you walked by you could peek in, and
see its occupant hard at work. Hunched over his notebook,
scribbling away. Or standing by his bookcase, deep in thought.
Most often at the blackboard, chalk in hand. This was John
Archibald Wheeler, one of the legends of modern physics. He did
foundational work on quantum mechanics, collaborating with
Niels Bohr on some of the earliest work in nuclear fission. He
invented the S-matrix. He played important roles in both the
Manhattan project (atomic bomb) and the Matterhorn project
(Hydrogen bomb). He made major contributions to general
relativity, co-authoring with Charlie Misner and Kip Thorne the
bible of the field. He was legendary for his way with words,
coining such terms as wormholes, quantum foam, black holes, and
the wave function of the Universe (the Wheeler-DeWitt
equation). He trained generations of students; one of his first
was Richard Feynman.Fortunately, being a relatively clueless
20-year old, I was only dimly aware of these things. I was
interested in gravity and cosmology, and I had heard Wheeler
knew a thing or two about such topics. So I waltzed in, and
asked if he had any projects I could work on. I staggered out
of his office four hours later, laden with books, a clearly
defined project in my hands. For the ensuing two years I spent
essentially every weekday with Wheeler. Each morning I would
rush over to his office, always to be greeted the same way:
“What’s new?” I would have been up late the
night before, desperately trying to find something interesting
with which to answer that question. We would then spend hours
working together, going over my results, scrutinizing my
calculations, poring through the literature, brainstorming new
ideas. Wheeler gave me a direct and personal introduction to
the joys of research. We would break for lunch, and walk up to
the faculty club. I often had trouble keeping up with him. He
would always take the stairs (”No time to wait for an
elevator!”). He would hook his arm into the banisters,
and swing around, practically leaping from one flight to the
next. This was 1990; Wheeler was 80 years old.We would often
work all afternoon (with the occasional interruption, the
nuisance of having to leave for my class lectures). Every
evening I would walk with him from Jadwin up across the full
length of campus, to catch his bus. We would pass the corner of
Ivy lane and Washington road, where he had scratched 137 into
the concrete when they were pouring the sidewalk. We would pass
Jones Hall, where he used to discuss relativity with Einstein.
We would continue on through campus, crossing in front of
Nassau Hall. Wheeler would insist we walk diagonally to the far
gate, instead of exiting through the more convenient
FitzRandolph Gate. An Undergraduate was not meant to exit
FitzRandolph Gate until graduation, and Wheeler didn’t
want to be responsible for what might occur were I to break
tradition.For two years I sat at the foot of the master, and I
absorbed as much as I could. I learned about science, and about
life. Wheeler had broad interests. We would often discuss
biology, or history, or poetry. Over the ensuing years we kept
in touch. We collaborated together on Wheeler’s last
published paper.Yesterday I spent a couple of hours at
Wheeler’s bedside. I tried to say thank you. But it was
impossible to convey how much he means to me, and how grateful
I am to him. In that moment when I crossed the threshold to his
office, I was embarking on a new path. I am still on that path,
and every day I am grateful to him for showing me the way.John
Wheeler died this morning.
