Silvan Samuel Schweber (10 April 1928 in

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

– 14 May 2017) was a French-born American theoretical physicist and historian of science.

Biography

In 1944 Schweber began to study chemistry at 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 within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

and in 1947 moved to the University of Pennsylvania as a physics major, where he studied with Walter Elsasser and

Herbert Jehle Herbert Jehle (5 March 1907, Stuttgart – 14 January 1983, Koblenz) was a German-American physicist. Jehle graduated in 1930 from the Technische Hochschule Stuttgart with a degree in engineering and in 1933 from the Technische Hochschule Berlin w ...

. After obtaining his master's degree in 1949, he went to Princeton University, where he studied with David Bohm and Eugene Wigner. In 1952 he received his doctorate under

Arthur Wightman Arthur Strong Wightman (March 30, 1922 – January 13, 2013) was an American mathematical physicist. He was one of the founders of the axiomatic approach to quantum field theory, and originated the set of Wightman axioms. With his rigorous treatm ...

. After that, he was a postdoctoral fellow with Hans Bethe at Cornell University and in 1954 at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. From 1955 he was a professor at the newly founded Brandeis University. He wrote a book on

relativistic quantum field theory In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines classical field theory, special relativity, and quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct physical models of subatomic particles and ...

published in 1961, available in reprint by Dover Publications. From 1981 Schweber was a Faculty Associate in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University. He was also a fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

, the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2011 he was awarded the

Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics The Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics is an award given each year since 2005 jointly by the American Physical Society and the American Institute of Physics for "''outstanding scholarly achievements in the history of physics''". The prize ...

. Schweber died on 14 May 2017 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schweber, Silvan 1928 births 2017 deaths American physicists Historians of science Harvard University Department of History faculty City College of New York alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni Princeton University alumni Brandeis University faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences