Great Physicists of the 20th Century

Enrico Fermi

Nobel prize, 1938, for his demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, and for his related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons.

Richard Feynman

Nobel prize, 1965, for fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles.

Yoichiro Nambu

Reknowned for his deep insights into the phenomenon of spontaneous symmetry breaking, for his discovery of the SU(3) gauge theory of the strong interactions^*, now known as Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), and for his co-discovery of the "Nambu-Goto" string action.

^* Y. Nambu in 'Preludes in Theoretical Physics', editor
A. de Shalit (North Holland Press, Amsterdam, 1966)

This page will be extended from time to time to incorporate other great physicists born in the 20th century. Nominations together with digitized pictures may be sent to lclavell@bama.ua.edu.

Great Physicists of the 20th Century

* Y. Nambu in 'Preludes in Theoretical Physics', editor A. de Shalit (North Holland Press, Amsterdam, 1966)

^* Y. Nambu in 'Preludes in Theoretical Physics', editor
A. de Shalit (North Holland Press, Amsterdam, 1966)