Sidney Coleman

Sidney Coleman

Sidney Coleman (7 March 1937 – 18 November 2007) was an eminent theoretical physicist who studied under Murray Gell-Mann.

Quotes

• Not only God knows, I know, and by the end of the semester, you will know.
  • Said during one of his lectures at Harvard University [1].

• People get a lot of confusion, because they keep trying to think of quantum mechanics as classical mechanics
  • Quantum Mechanics in Your Face, a lecture given by Sidney Coleman at the New England sectional meeting of the American Physical Society (Apr. 9, 1994)

• The career of a young theoretical physicist consists of treating the harmonic oscillator in ever-increasing levels of abstraction.
  • Said during one of his lectures at Harvard University [2].

Quotes about Coleman

• Sidney Coleman was not only a leader in theoretical particle physics, but also a hugely gifted and dedicated teacher. In his courses he found just the right balance between rigor and intuition, enlivened by wit, humor and a deep store of anecdotes about the history of physics. Very often these were first-hand accounts; if he wasn't a participant, he was an eyewitness.
  • David Derbes in preface to Chen, Bryan Gin-ge, et al., ed (2018). Quantum field theory: lectures of Sidney Coleman, preface by David Kaiser. World Scientific. p. xxix. 

• If you haven't read his Erice Lectures, you don't know the heights that scientific writing can attain.
  • Jacques Distler: Liveblogging from SidneyFest. Musings: Thoughts on Science, Computing, and Life on Earth (18 March 2005).

• Steve Weinberg was giving the gauge seminar one Wednesday and was, as I recall nearly finished or just finishing his talk. Sidney had not arrived. So-Young Pi asked Steve a question and Steve replied (as I recall) “That’s a good question. I don’t know the answer; I haven’t thought about it.” At that exact instant Sidney enters the room, hears Steve’s reply, heads for the coffee pot, and says “I know the answer; what’s the question?” He was told the question, and he answered it. (Correctly, of course.)
  • Ken Lane: blogpost comment on Nov. 20, 2007; 10:40 AM, as quoted by Betsy Devine in Our friend Sidney Coleman has left the planet. betsydevine.com (blog) (20 November 2007).