Marvin Chester (29 December 1930 in

New York, New York New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on New York Harbor, one of the world's largest natural harb ...

– 22 April 2016) was a

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

emeritus professor of

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

who specialized in

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...

. After receiving his B.S. undergraduate degree from the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

in 1952, he studied under

Richard Feynman Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of t ...

and John R. Pellam at

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

where he received his Ph.D. in

in 1961. Thereafter he spent the following 31 years (1961 to 1992) as a faculty member in the

department at

Physics

Dr. Chester is perhaps best known for his text book for student physicists called ''Primer of Quantum Mechanics'' which connects the mathematical machinery of

directly to its philosophical underpinnings. Among his more substantial contributions to the field, he predicted and demonstrated a Bernoulli Effect in the electron gas. He is known for playing with and challenging the formal constructs of the scientific publication. One example of this can be found in ''An experiment regarding the wave function of superfluid helium''; A published technical description of an experiment to detect the

diffraction Diffraction is the deviation of waves from straight-line propagation without any change in their energy due to an obstacle or through an aperture. The diffracting object or aperture effectively becomes a secondary source of the Wave propagation ...

, because of its order parameter wave function property, of bulk superfluid helium flow through a grating - written in rhymed verse.

Symmetry & Identity

He showed that the notion of identity (identification) is connected to the concept of

symmetry Symmetry () in everyday life refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, the term has a more precise definition and is usually used to refer to an object that is Invariant (mathematics), invariant und ...

. He established the connection via the mathematical apparatus of

group theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ( ...

, the abstract formulation of symmetry.

Population Dynamics

He proposed that the following statement is a fundamental principle governing nature: "The effect on the environment of a population’s success is to alter that environment in a way that opposes the success." By showing how to formulate it quantitatively he enabled the principle to be tested empirically in the laboratory.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chester, Marvin 1931 births 2016 deaths American quantum physicists California Institute of Technology alumni City College of New York alumni People from Santa Cruz, California Scientists from New York City University of California, Los Angeles faculty