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AUSTIN, Texas – Nobel laureate Stephen Weinberg, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin, has died. He was 88 years old.
One of the most famous scientists of his generation, Weinberg is best known for helping to develop an important part of the Standard Model of particle physics, which dramatically advanced humanity’s understanding of how everything works in the universe – its various particles and the forces that govern them. . – are linked. A faculty member for nearly four decades at UT Austin, he was a beloved teacher and scholar, respected not only by scholars who were astonished by his concise and elegant theories, but also by science enthusiasts of the world who read his books and looked for him in public appearances. and conferences.
Stephen Weinberg’s death is a loss to the University of Texas and to the community. “Professor Weinberg has unraveled the mysteries of the universe for millions of people, enriching the human concept of nature and our relationship with the world,” said Jay Hartzel, president of the University of Texas at Austin. “From his students to science enthusiasts, from astrophysicists to public policy makers, he has made a huge difference in our understanding. In short, he changed the world.
“As a world-class scholar and faculty member, I have captivated Stephen Weinberg and inspired the UT Austin community for nearly four decades,” said Sharon L. Wood, Dean of the University. “His extraordinary discoveries and contributions to cosmology and elementary particles have not only strengthened UT’s position as a world leader in physics, but also changed the world.”
Weinberg held the Jack S. Josy-Welch Foundation Chair of Science at the University of Austin and received numerous scientific prizes, including the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics, which he shared with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Lee Glashaw; National Science Medal in 1991; Louis Thomas scientific prize as a poet 1999; And last year, she received the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. He was a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of London, the British Royal Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, which awarded him the Benjamin Franklin Medal in 2004.
In 1967, Weinberg published an article showing how two of the four fundamental forces in the universe – electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force – are related as part of the unified electroweak force. A “lepton model”, in just three pages, predicted previously unobserved properties of elementary particles (W, Z, and Higgs bosons) and theorized that “weak neutral currents” dictated how elementary particles interact with each other. with each other. Subsequent experiments, including the discovery in 2012 of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland, will prove all his predictions.
Weinberg capitalized on his fame and knowledge for causes close to his heart. He has always been interested in limiting the spread of nuclear weapons and briefly served as a consultant to the United States Agency for Arms Control and Disarmament. He called for a planned superconducting collider with the capabilities of the Large Hadron Collider in the United States – a project that ultimately did not receive funding in the 1990s after it was planned for a site near Waxahachie, Texas. He became a life science ambassador, for example, teaching students at the University of Austin and participating in events such as the 2021 Nobel Prize Inspiration Initiative in April and the Texas Science Festival in February.
“When we talk about science as part of the culture of our time, it’s best to make it part of that culture by explaining what we’re doing,” he explained in a 2015 interview posted by Third Way. “I think it’s very important not to write to the public. You should keep in mind that you are writing for people who are not trained in mathematics but who are as intelligent as you are.
By showing the unifying connections behind weak and electromagnetic forces, which were previously thought to be very different, Weinberg provided the first pillar of the Standard Model, the half-century-old theory that explains particles and three of the four fundamental forces in the universe (and the fourth, gravitation). Despite the importance of the model in helping physicists understand the order that governs everything, from the first few minutes after the Big Bang to the world around us, Weinberg, along with other scientists, continued to pursue dreams of a ” ultimate theory “which would be brief. explanation of the current unknown about forces and particles in the universe, including gravity.
Weinberg has written hundreds of scientific papers on general relativity, quantum field theory, cosmology, and quantum mechanics, as well as numerous articles, reviews, and popular books. His books include Explaining the World, Dreams of the Final Theory, Confrontation, and The First Three Minutes. Weinberg has often been asked in media interviews to reflect on his atheism and its connection to the scientific ideas he has described in his books.
“If there is no meaning in the universe that we discover by the methods of science, there is a meaning that we can give to the universe in our way of living, by loving each other. others, by discovering things about nature, by creating works of art, ”he once told the TV show. “Even though we are not stars in cosmic dramas, if the only drama we play in is the one we do as we go, it is not entirely inferior to face this unloved universe. and impersonal we make as a little island of warmth, love, science and art for ourselves. “
A native of New York, Weinberg’s love of science began as a child with a gift from a chemistry group and continued to teach calculus himself when he was a student at Bronx High School of Science. The first of his family to attend college, he received a BA from Cornell University and a PhD from Princeton University. He conducted research at Columbia University and the University of California at Berkeley, before serving as a faculty member at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and since 1982 at the University of Austin.
He is survived by his wife, law professor Louise Weinberg at the University of Utah-Austin, and their daughter Elizabeth.
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