Session B05: Remembering Julian Schwinger

Divergence

After a couple of false starts, I received my Ph.D. in 1967 under the supervision of Julian Schwinger. But at that time he was already moving away from the quantum field theory, of which he was the renowned master, and into "source theory." I was unwilling to follow in that direction, but I also moved away from QFT. So our paths diverged. I will tell some anecdotes about Schwinger and also describe my path. My recollections of Schwinger may shed some light on his achievement as a mentor. During his career he mentored 73 succesful doctoral candidates, four of whom won Nobel Prizes!
  

A Remembrance of Julian Schwinger

I will discuss the scientific legacy of Julian Schwinger (1918-1994).  Beginning as a nuclear physicist, he became the first to solve the problems of quantum electrodynamics, with his famous result for the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron in 1947.  Renormalized quantum electrodynamics now reigns supreme as the most successful theoretical construction of humankind.  Schwinger went on make major contributions to quantum field theory, such as the quantum action principle, Euclidean quantum field theory, and the study of anomalies.  He devised a major approach to quantum mechanics called Measurement Algebra.  Late in his career, after his move from Harvard to UCLA he developed unique analyses of the Casimir Effect and Thomas-Fermi theory.  In the course of his career, he reformulated quantum field theory four times, starting from a noncovariant approach and ending in his "non-speculative" Source Theory.  This talk will highlight some of the important milestones of his life and career.   

Julian Schwinger at Harvard before June, '67 --- remembered by a star-struck and frequently confused undergrad

I was an undergraduate at Harvard when Julian Schwinger received the Nobel
Prize.  The following year, I took his course on Source Theory.  I will
share some memories of those days, and some of my interactions with Schwinger's work and
students in the years that followed.  I will also pass on some stories of
the very early days from some of my Harvard colleagues