Rodney James Crewther (23 September 1945 – 17 December 2020) was a physicist, notable in the field of

gauge field In physics, a gauge theory is a type of field theory in which the Lagrangian (and hence the dynamics of the system itself) does not change (is invariant) under local transformations according to certain smooth families of operations (Lie groups ...

theories.

Education

After gaining his MSc at

Melbourne University The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

, Crewther was awarded a

Fulbright scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

to the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

. He studied under the tutelage of Nobel prizewinner

Murray Gell-Mann Murray Gell-Mann (; September 15, 1929 – May 24, 2019) was an American physicist who received the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the theory of elementary particles. He was the Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Theoretical ...

and completed his doctorate, in 1971, after successfully defending his dissertation against the renowned theorist

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

. His thesis was entitled ''Spontaneous Breakdown of Conformal and Chiral Invariance.''

Career

After his PhD, he held postdoctoral appointments at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...

in Ithaca,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and the

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located just outside Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics. Since 2007, Fermilab has been operat ...

in Batavia,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...

. Subsequently, he spent twelve years in Europe, six of them as a Staff Member of the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situ ...

, and the remainder as a research associate at the

University of Berne The University of Bern (german: Universität Bern, french: Université de Berne, la, Universitas Bernensis) is a university in the Swiss capital of Bern and was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the Canton of Bern. It is a compre ...

University of Dortmund TU Dortmund University (german: Technische Universität Dortmund) is a technical university in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany with over 35,000 students, and over 6,000 staff including 300 professors, offering around 80 Bachelor's and ...

, and at the

Max Planck Institute Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE) * Max (gorilla) ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

. Crewther was then appointed as a senior lecturer in physics at the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on ...

. Having a keen interest in politics, Crewther was vice-president of the University of Adelaide branch of the

National Tertiary Education Union The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) is an Australian trade union for all higher education and university employees. It is an industry union, and the only union working exclusively in the Australian university sector. Overview NTEU ...

. He also served on the University Council.

Teaching

He designed the honours physics course "Gauge Field Theories." He also lectured on Quantum Mechanics III, Advanced Dynamics and Relativity, and Honours Quantum Field Theory. For courses Quantum Mechanics II, Honours Relativistic Quantum Mechanics and Particle Physics, and Classical Fields and Mathematical Methods, his notes were followed by his successors. Dr Crewther also taught a 4-week module of Physics 1B at the University of Adelaide where he hosted mechanics lectures that focused on the centre of mass, rotation, angular momentum and gyroscopic precession.

Death

He died in 2020 around Christmas time from cancer.

Notes and references

External links

Crewther's math genealogy

Crewther's Expert profile

Crewther's University of Adelaide profile

Commentary on Crewther's work by Gerardus 't Hooft

Crewther at the Scientific Commons

Scientific publications of Rod Crewther
on

INSPIRE-HEP INSPIRE-HEP is an open access digital library for the field of high energy physics (HEP). It is the successor of the Stanford Physics Information Retrieval System (SPIRES) database, the main literature database for high energy physics since the 1970 ...

Crewther's thesis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crewther, Rod 1945 births 2020 deaths Australian physicists People associated with CERN University of Adelaide faculty University of Melbourne alumni California Institute of Technology alumni