Photo courtesy of the Office of Communications

Photo by Dino Palomares

Richard Feynman *42 was one of the most important scientists of the twentieth century.  He conducted research at Princeton during the time when the University was the de facto center for the study of theoretical physics.  After receiving a Ph.D. in 1942, he spent three years at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory to help produce the first atomic bomb. Earning the 1965 Nobel laureate in physics for his work on quantum electrodynamics, he later drew great attention as a member of the presidential commission investigating the 1986 Challenger disaster when he accused NASA of “playing Russian roulette” with the astronauts’ lives.  His anecdotal autobiography, Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman, spent 14 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and his Lectures on Physics, first published in 1963, continues to be a leading text in physics classes. A vibrant and popular teacher of theoretical physics at Cornell and California Institute of Technology, Feynman lectured until two weeks before his death in 1988.

• To learn more about Nobel Prize recipients, see quotation #6, 12, 13, 24,29, 33, and 34, and Café Vivian pictures #29 and 60.
  
  
•  To learn more about notable Princeton professors, see icon #7, quotation #6, 13, 15, 20, 21, 26, 27, 31, 32, 34, 39, and 40, and Café Vivian picture #10, 14, 17, 22, 25, 29, 43, 51, 57, 59, 60, 68, 75, 87, 94, 101, and 108.
  
  
• To learn more about notable Princeton graduate alumni, see quotation #3, 5, 30, and 31, and Café Vivian picture #59, 70, and 131.
  
  
• To learn more about the history of science at Princeton, see icon #2, 5, 6, and 7, quotation #9, 27, and 39, and Café Vivian picture #14, 15, 22, 25, 32, 35, 41, 43, 51, 64, 75, 78, 83, 87, 90, 114, and 131.

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