 "Photo: AP")
A former UT physics professor, whose contributions as a teacher and a communicator matched his work as a researcher, died Sunday at the age of 96.
John A. Wheeler is known for popularizing the term "black hole" to describe the space phenomenon. He also worked with a team of scientists on the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bomb.
Wheeler arrived at UT in 1976, looking to escape mandatory retirement at Princeton University and to stay active, former colleague Austin Gleeson said.
Gleeson, a UT physics professor, said Wheeler's presence raised the credibility of the physics program at UT and its national ranking.
"He had a real flair. He made physics a much more popular discipline," Gleeson said.
After earning a doctoral degree at Johns Hopkins University, Wheeler spent nearly four decades as a faculty member at Princeton. His tenure there was interrupted only by his work on the Manhattan Project during World War II.
In the 1930s, Wheeler wrote a paper with famed scientist Niels Bohr on the theory of nuclear fission and developed the scattering matrix, which has become an essential tool in particle physics research.
But according to colleagues and students, Wheeler's greatest accomplishments were not so technical in nature. His thinking became more philosophical over time, and he took an unconventional approach to physics questions that informed the work of his students.
"Johnny enjoyed teaching, and he enjoyed teaching young people," Gleeson said.
Bill Unruh, a physics professor at the University of British Columbia, called Wheeler's influence on his career "tremendous" in a variety of ways.
"One of the things was just his courage in being able to tackle questions many other physicists found so vague and nonsensical," Unruh said.
This often resulted in an intuition that would not be proved until 10 years down the road, he said. Wheeler was the first person to emphasize the importance of string theory and one of the first to emphasize reflection on the foundations of quantum mechanics.
Unruh compared Wheeler to a man perched on the crow's nest of a ship and said he could see farther than those below him.
Charles Misner, a professor emeritus of physics at the University of Maryland, said Wheeler's research could be charted in three phases. He spent about 20 years each on nuclear physics and gravitational physics before moving to the fundamentals of quantum mechanics.
In the field of quantum mechanics, Unruh said Wheeler formed a bridge between the first generation of theorists and later researchers concerned about the meanings of the theory, while his contemporaries were more interested in calculations.
Though based at Princeton and UT, Wheeler was instrumental in establishing Maryland's physics department, Misner said.
A former student of Wheeler's built up the department to become one of the top 15 in the nation. Wheeler also arranged for Joseph Weber, founder of the field of gravitational wave astronomy, to take a sabbatical at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies. His time there would allow him to develop his theories.
"Among famous men, you don't often find truly nice people," Gleeson said. "He cared about people he was around and wanted young people to succeed. He was just the kind of colleague everybody wanted."
Be the first to comment on this article!