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Memories of Richard Feynman

Memories of Richard Feynman
Memories of Richard Feynman
I well remember my arrival at Caltech on a sunny October morning in 1970. Fresh from the University of Oxford where even graduate students at that time wore ties and shirts, I was unsure what to wear for my first meeting with Murray Gell‐Mann. I gambled, wrongly, on a suit, and arrived at the office of the theory group secretary, Julie Curcio, feeling more and more overdressed and as if I had a large label dangling from my collar saying “New PhD from Oxford.” I had seen Gell‐Mann once before in England but was unsure if the bearded individual dressed in an open‐necked shirt and sitting in Julie's office was indeed the eminent professor, A moment after I had introduced myself, my doubts were dispelled by the man putting out his hand and saying “Hi, I'm Murray.” This episode illustrates only a small part of the healthy culture shock I experienced in California. Six years in Oxford had left me used to calling my professor “Professor Dalitz, sir.” At that time, I would certainly not have dared to address Richard Dalitz as “Dick.”
A ‘new’ set of lectures—on computation—by one of the more colorful characters in modern physics, gives rise to these reminiscences by an Englishman in Richard's court.
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Hey, A J G
f4e293d1-493d-4a14-9c89-9be45872531e
Hey, A J G
f4e293d1-493d-4a14-9c89-9be45872531e

Hey, A J G (1996) Memories of Richard Feynman. Physics Today. p. 44 . (doi:10.1063/1.881518).

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

I well remember my arrival at Caltech on a sunny October morning in 1970. Fresh from the University of Oxford where even graduate students at that time wore ties and shirts, I was unsure what to wear for my first meeting with Murray Gell‐Mann. I gambled, wrongly, on a suit, and arrived at the office of the theory group secretary, Julie Curcio, feeling more and more overdressed and as if I had a large label dangling from my collar saying “New PhD from Oxford.” I had seen Gell‐Mann once before in England but was unsure if the bearded individual dressed in an open‐necked shirt and sitting in Julie's office was indeed the eminent professor, A moment after I had introduced myself, my doubts were dispelled by the man putting out his hand and saying “Hi, I'm Murray.” This episode illustrates only a small part of the healthy culture shock I experienced in California. Six years in Oxford had left me used to calling my professor “Professor Dalitz, sir.” At that time, I would certainly not have dared to address Richard Dalitz as “Dick.”
A ‘new’ set of lectures—on computation—by one of the more colorful characters in modern physics, gives rise to these reminiscences by an Englishman in Richard's court.

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More information

Published date: 1996
Additional Information: Vol49 (9)
Venue - Dates: Physics Today, 1996-01-01
Organisations: Electronics & Computer Science

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Local EPrints ID: 251814
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/251814
PURE UUID: 055beeb7-5ef3-418a-a3f4-7d2eaa849d39

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Date deposited: 09 Nov 1999
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 05:12

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Author: A J G Hey

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