Who is Richard Feynman?
Richard Feynman (1918 — 1988) is regarded by many as the best physics teacher of the 20th century. He is best known for his highly accessible The Feynman Lectures on Physics, his work on the atomic bomb and his huge contributions to the field of quantum electrodynamics. Feynman was also the first to conceive of nanotechnology and the quantum computer, as well as an adventurer and traveler with a fondness for playing the drums. Feynman got his bachelor’s degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1939, followed by his PhD at Princeton University in 1942, where he studied under the famous John Archibald Wheeler. Feynman then went to work on the Manhattan Project for the atomic bomb, where he became a friend of laboratory head J. Robert Oppenheimer. After the war, he taught as a professor for a brief stint at Cornell University, followed by a transfer to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he stayed for many years. Feynman shared the Nobel Prize in Physics
The cover notes of the book “Genius” by James Gleick (Vintage Books) said it best: “To his colleagues, Richard Feynman was not so much a genius as he was a full-blown magician: someone who “does things that nobody else could do and that seem completely unexpected.” The path he cleared for 20th Century physics led from the making of the atomic bomb to a Nobel Prize-winning theory of quantum electrodynamics to his devastating expose of the Challenger space shuttle disaster. At the same time, the ebullient Feynman established a reputation as an eccentric showman, a master safe cracker and bongo player, and a wizard of seduction.” After I read my first book by Richard Feynman I was hooked. He impressed me immensely with his writing style, down-to-earth explanation of difficult concepts, and most of all the way he did science. To me he represents the epitome of many great scientists, a Newton and Galileo, an Einstein and Bohr all wrapped up into one. I bought every book written by him and a
