Peter Carruthers (1935 – August 3, 1997) was an American physicist best known for leading the theoretical division of

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development Laboratory, laboratories of the United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, United States Department of Energy ...

from 1973 until 1980.

Early life and education

Peter Carruthers was born in

Lafayette, Indiana Lafayette ( ) is a city in and is the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, located northwest of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of Lafayette ...

, United States. He attended the

Carnegie Institute of Technology Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

graduating in 1957. He then studied at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

where in 1961 he gained a PhD in theoretical physics. His doctoral advisor was

Hans Bethe Hans Albrecht Eduard Bethe (; ; July 2, 1906 – March 6, 2005) was a German-American physicist who made major contributions to nuclear physics, astrophysics, quantum electrodynamics and solid-state physics, and received the Nobel Prize in Physi ...

Career

After earning his PhD, he remained at Cornell University, where he quickly became a full professor. While there he supervised PhD students and post-doctoral fellows until retiring from the position in 1973, when he became the leader of the theoretical division at Los Alamos Laboratory. While there he oversaw the growth of the laboratory and developed an internationally renowned programme which focused on wide-ranging fundamental research. In 1980 he stepped down from this position but remained at Los Alamos until 1986, becoming a senior fellow and leader of the Elementary Particle and Field Theory Group. He then joined the University of Arizona as the head of the physics department. He later became the director of the Center for the Study of Complex Systems. Together with

Murray Gell-Mann Murray Gell-Mann (; September 15, 1929 – May 24, 2019) was an American theoretical physicist who played a preeminent role in the development of the theory of elementary particles. Gell-Mann introduced the concept of quarks as the funda ...

and others he played a role in the creation of the

Santa Fe Institute The Santa Fe Institute (SFI) is an independent, nonprofit theoretical research institute located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States and dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of the fundamental principles of complex adaptive systems, inc ...

Books

*Hadronic Multiparticle Production (Directions in High Energy Physics, Advanced) *Lectures on the Many-Electron Problem, R. Brout and P. Carruthers, Interscience Publishers, 1963 *Introduction to Unitary Symmetry, Peter A. Carruthers, Interscience Publishers, 1966

References

*http://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/08/us/peter-carruthers-61-physicist.html *http://library.web.cern.ch/library/archives/biographies/Carruthers_PA-199711.pdf {{DEFAULTSORT:Carruthers, Peter A. 1935 births 1997 deaths People from Lafayette, Indiana Carnegie Mellon University alumni Cornell University alumni Cornell University faculty University of Arizona faculty Los Alamos National Laboratory personnel 20th-century American physicists American theoretical physicists Santa Fe Institute people