When Dr. John Archibald Wheeler died April 13 at age 96 in Hightstown, N.J., the science world mourned the loss of one of its brightest minds, greatest teachers and most acclaimed theoretical physicists.
Known as the father of modern general relativity, Wheeler created the term "black hole" to describe areas in deep space in which the gravitational field is powerful enough to prohibit even light from escaping them. He worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II to develop the United States' first atomic bomb, and later, was instrumental in efforts to create the first hydrogen bomb.
Few, however, knew of his affection for Abilene Christian University’s Department of Physics, known widely as one of the nation's top undergraduate program for leading-edge instruction and collaborative research between students and faculty.
Wheeler, named 1999 Friend of the Year by the Friends of the ACU Library, was for more than 20 years a generous donor of thousands of volumes of books and periodicals to Brown Library, including published collections of the works of two of his collaborators and contemporaries, Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein.
Both Bohr (1922) and Einstein (1921) won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Bohr is renown for research on the structure of atoms and Einstein, named in 1999 by Time magazine as "Person of the Century," for his theory of relativity.
"That he would donate so many of his wonderful books to us was a shock to me – he picked us over Princeton and Texas," said Dr. Charles Ivey, former ACU professor and chair of physics who befriended Wheeler in the 1970s on one of Wheeler's trips to campus for discussions about gravity and cosmology with physicists from as far away as India and Australia. "I spent many hours looking at the books and especially the ones with the personal notes to him from other luminaries in physics. The collection is a treasure."
A letter in 1999 from Wheeler to ACU physics professor Dr. Michael Sadler speaks of a recommendation by The University of Texas at Austin physics faculty that Wheeler donate his library to Abilene Christian because, in part, of its "serious program in physics."
ACU undergraduates regularly spend summers working alongside faculty in laboratories for nuclear accelerator research at Brookhaven (Long Island, N.Y.), Los Alamos (New Mexico), Fermi (Batavia, Ill.) and St. Petersburg (Russia) in roles typically reserved for graduate students from institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton. Physics students at ACU have co-authored more than 100 research papers published in leading science journals and presented at professional conferences in the U.S., Europe and Russia.
"John told me he was happy to see a school like ACU doing real research using undergraduates and he was taken by the idea that we put modern physics into even freshman-level classes," said Ivey.
While professors of Wheeler’s caliber rarely teach anyone but graduate or doctoral students at major universities, he had a special passion for teaching science to freshmen and sophomores. He lectured about that commitment while at ACU during a 1980 meeting of the Texas Section of the American Physical Society, the American Association of Physics Teachers, and the Society of Physics Students.
Dr. Donald Isenhower, ACU professor of physics, said Wheeler's thoughts became a powerful influence upon his own philosophy about teaching undergraduates at ACU. "He pointed out that a general core requirement in science, such as Astronomy, was likely the last chance anyone was going to have to teach students science. So he believed you should have your best teachers in classes like these. That has stuck with me for my entire 22-year career here at ACU," Isenhower said.
"To me, as impressive as the gift itself was the honor it accorded ACU and its physics department," said Dr. Josh Willis, assistant professor of physics and an ACU graduate whose undergraduate studies involved books from Wheeler's collection.
"Wheeler was one of the most influential physicists of the last century, through his scientific work, his pedagogical writings and his students," said Willis. "My own Ph.D. advisor (at Pennsylvania State University) was a student of one of Wheeler's students; I don't know an exact count but surely no other person in relativity has as many 'intellectual descendants' through his students as John Wheeler. He shaped not just the terminology but also many of the central ideas of modern general relativity. And that field was just one area of physics where he was influential."
Wheeler earned a doctorate at age 21, and taught at Princeton University from 1938-76, when he retired as the Joseph Henry Professor of Physics Emeritus. A native of Florida, he considered Texas his second home, serving as director of the Center for Theoretical Physics at The University of Texas at Austin until 1986.
He received honorary degrees from 18 institutions. In 2001, Princeton established the John Archibald Wheeler/Battelle Professorship in Physics to recognize Wheeler's research and service. Among his many honors were the National Medal of Science, the Albert Einstein Prize, the Wolf Prize in Physics, the Franklin Medal, and the Niels Bohr International Gold Medal. In the 1970s, he was a member of the U.S. General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament.
For more information about Wheeler's life and career in science, see www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S20/82/08G77/. For more information about ACU's Department of Physics, see www.acu.edu/physics.
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