Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg dies at 88

Physicist Steven Weinberg, who won the Nobel prize in 1979 along with two other scientists for their separate contributions to unlocking the mysteries of tiny particles and their electromagnetic interactions, has died at the age of 88, the University of Texas at Austin said Saturday, July 24, 2021.

Weinberg, who was a professor at the university since the 1980s, died on Friday July 23 in Austin, Texas.

Quoted from the AP page, Tuesday (27/7/2021), the famous physicist has been hospitalized for several weeks.

However, the cause of death was not disclosed.

“The death of Steven Weinberg is a loss for The University of Texas and the community,” UT President Jay Hartzell said in a statement.

“Professor Weinberg unlocked the mysteries of the universe for millions of people, enriching the human concept of nature and our relationship to the world,” Hartzell added.

In 1979, Weinberg shared the Nobel prize in physics with scientists Abdus Salam and Sheldon Lee Glashow.

Their work improves understanding of how everything in the universe is related, according to a UT statement.

The work helps physicists unify two of the four forces of nature, the subatomic forces known as nuclear forces, said Sean Carroll, a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology.

“It’s all about understanding the laws of nature in depth. We are curious creatures and we want to know how the universe around us works,” says Carroll.

Weinberg’s work builds on that of Albert Einstein, according to Columbia University string theory physicist Brian Greene.

“The idea is that all the forces of nature might actually be the same force. It was a dream that Einstein had, that everything might be whole,” Greene said.

“He pushed this idea forward. He pushed this idea forward by showing (the two forces) are the same power.”

Weinberg’s Career Traces

Weinberg, Salam and Glashow — working separately — and were awarded “for their contributions tips memilih bandar togel terpercaya to the unified theory of weak and electromagnetic interactions between elementary particles, including the prediction of weak neutral currents,” according to the Nobel Prize website.

A native of New York, Weinberg was a researcher at Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley, early in his career.

He then served on the faculty of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining the UT faculty in 1982, teaching physics and astronomy.

Weinberg is survived by a wife and a daughter.

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