Feynman, Richard Phillips (1918–1988)

American theoretical physicist who shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics with Julian Schwinger and Shinichiro Tomonaga (1906–1979) for their independent work on quantum electrodynamics. With Murray Gell-Mann, he proposed the quark as a fundamental subatomic particle.

Feynman helped to develop the atomic bomb during the Manhattan Project, before going to Cornell University with Hans Bethe where he began his great work on quantum electrodynamics.He was professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology from 1950 until his death. With Gell-Mann, he developed a theory of weak interactions (see weak force), such as those that occur in the emission of electrons from radioactive nuclei. His invention of Feynman diagrams greatly facilitated theoretical work on elementary particles and their interactions. In 1986 he was a key member of the committee that investigated the Challenger space shuttle disaster.

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