Richard P. Feynman
Timeline of (Some) Notable Events in Feynman's Life
1918
Born and raised in Queens, New York.
1935
After being rejected by Columbia because of their Jewish quota, he attended MIT to study
physics (though he started with mathematics and then electrical engineering).
1939
Earned his bachelor's degree and began graduate school at Princeton. The first seminar he
gave
was attended by Albert Einstein.
1941
Began work on what would later become the Manhattan Project, the US-led project for
developing
nuclear weapons.
1942
Earned his PhD with his doctoral thesis titled The Principle of Least Action in
Quantum
Mechanics. A condition of his scholarship at Princeton was that he could not marry, but with
that over
he promplty married his longtime girlfriend, Arline Greenbaum, who was suffering from tuberculosis, an
incurable
disease at the time.
1943
Continued his work on the Manhattan Project at the newly established Los Alamos
Laboratory.
When not working, he occupied some of his time at the secure facility by breaking into combination
safes,
usually by using the safe’s default combination or finding it written on a paper somewhere else in the
room.
Arline stayed at a sanatorium in Albuqueque for treatment, with Feynman borrowing a car to make the
100-mile
trip to stay with her on the weekends.
1945
Arline passes away with Feynman at her side. A month later, he was present for the
Trinity
nuclear test, the first detonation of a nuclear device. A few months after, he departed Los Alamos to
teach at
Cornell in Ithica, New York. While at Cornell, his work on quantum electrodynamics led to what are now
know as
Feynman diagrams, the Feynman propagator and the Feynman-Kac formula.
1950
Accepts a position at the California Institude of Technology (Caltech), but under the
condition
he can still take his planned sabbatical to Brazil. While in Brazil, he becomes enamoured with samba
music and
learns to play the frigideira, a frying pan repurposed as a percussion
instrument.
He became profecient enough that he was invited to play in the pit orchestra in musicals.
1952
After returning from Brazil, he marries Mary Louise Bell whom he met while at Cornell.
1954
Awarded the Albert Einstein Award by the Atomic Energy Commission. A girlfriend of his
would
later walk off with the medal.
1956
Feynman and Mary Louise seperate.
1958
Attends the Atoms for Peace conference in Switzerland as a representative for the United
States. While there he meets Gweneth Howarth.
1960
Marries Gweneth.
1965
Awarded the Nobel Prize along with Julian Schwinger and Shin'ichirō Tomonaga for their
work on
quantum electrodynamics.
1985
Published his autobiography titled Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!.
1988
Feynman passes away with Gweneth by his side. His last words were "I'd hate to die twice.
It's
so boring."
I do not know—but I believe that Richard Feynman is either a Communist or very strongly pro-Communist—and as such is a very definite security risk. This man is, in my opinion, an extremely complex and dangerous person, a very dangerous person to have in a position of public trust ... In matters of intrigue Richard Feynman is, I believe immensely clever—indeed a genius—and he is, I further believe, completely ruthless, unhampered by morals, ethics, or religion—and will stop at absolutely nothing to achieve his ends.
—Anonymous to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in 1958