John Wheeler, 1911-2008

Published
by
Clifford
on April 14, 2008
in science
. Tags: , , .

john wheeler in 1967 - New York Times

Another giant moves on. John Wheeler died yesterday. He’s known for bringing to light many wonderful pieces of physics (he’s also credited for coining the term “black hole”), classical and quantum (helping craft many of the ideas surrounding issues in quantum gravity, for example), and for being a great teacher. There’s an obituary* by Dennis Overbye in the New York Times here. I’ve borrowed their lovely photograph (which was given no photographer credit, so I cannot).

[Update: Daniel Holz has a personal reflection here.]

-cvj

*I learned of the article from Often in Error.

On this day on Asymptotia...

3 Responses to “John Wheeler, 1911-2008”

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  1. 1 Bilal
    April 15, 2008 at 9:29 am

    There’s also a nice write-up about his life in the Los Angeles Times by John Johnson Jr.

    http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-me-wheeler15apr15,1,76005.story

  2. 2 Clifford
    April 15, 2008 at 9:39 am

    Thanks!

    -cvj

  3. 3 Bilal
    April 15, 2008 at 9:56 pm

    I just read an excellent article by Dave Bacon who blogs at “The Quantum Pontiff”

    http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2008/04/john_wheeler.php

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