John A. Wheeler, Physicist Who Coined the Term ‘Black Hole,’ Is Dead at 96

[flashl]

John A. Wheeler, a visionary physicist and teacher who helped invent the theory of nuclear fission, gave black holes their name and argued about the nature of reality with Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr, died Sunday morning at his home in Hightstown, N.J. He was 96.

...

As a professor at Princeton and then at the University of Texas in Austin, Dr. Wheeler set the agenda for generations of theoretical physicists, using metaphor as effectively as calculus to capture the imaginations of his students and colleagues and to pose questions that would send them, minds blazing, to the barricades to confront nature.

Max Tegmark, a cosmologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said of Dr. Wheeler, “For me, he was the last Titan, the only physics superhero still standing.”

Under his leadership, Princeton became the leading American center of research into Einsteinian gravity, known as the general theory of relativity — a field that had been moribund because of its remoteness from laboratory experiment.

NY Times

[Birthmark]

1. He will be missed.

[girl gone mad]

2. I listened to him lecture at UTA..

In the late 90s. He was still as sharp as a tack. He wrote several of my textbooks, including my all time favorite textbook, Gravitation.

I think there are still a couple of physics superheroes standing, but he was definitely a top-tier scientist and an interesting thinker.

[Dudley_DUright]

3. I have MTW's "Gravitation" on my bookshelf as well

Sometimes I think that book is so dense it is in danger of becoming a black hole itself. I periodically pull it out in the summer and dabble in some GR. I did not dare use it for an undergrad GR independent study course I did a few years ago, and used Hartle instead. For a nice remembrance from one of his grad students, see the blog post at Cosmic Variance:

One beautiful Fall day seventeen years ago I wandered into an office and my life profoundly changed. I was an undergraduate at Princeton, and was looking for a thesis advisor. Jadwin Hall was an intimidating place. Plenty of names familiar from my textbooks. Nobel laureates scattered about. And we were expected to just barge into their offices, and ask to work with them.

more...

http://cosmicvariance.com/2008/04/13/goodbye/

[girl gone mad]

4. That was a touching article.

It reminded me very much of one of my own undergrad professors, who I believe is a remaining giant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Rindler

Like Wheeler, he often expressed disappointment to me that children aren't introduced to advanced concepts in Physics during early education.

In my brief encounters with Dr. Wheeler, I felt that he treated me with genuine respect despite the fact that I was a lowly undergrad and a young female. Too often that wasn't the case.

[rayofreason]

5. A true giant passes. n/t