George Zweig facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
George Zweig
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George Zweig giving a speech at Department of Physics, National Taiwan University
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| Born | May 20, 1937 Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Russia)
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| Citizenship | American |
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| Known for | Quark model |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics; neurobiology |
| Institutions | Los Alamos National Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Doctoral advisor | Richard Feynman |
George Zweig (born May 30, 1937) is an American physicist. He is famous for helping to create the idea of quarks. Quarks are tiny building blocks of matter. He later studied how our human ear hears sounds. He has worked at places like Los Alamos National Laboratory and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also worked in the financial world.
Contents
About George Zweig
His Early Life and Studies
George Zweig was born in Moscow, Soviet Union, in 1937. His family was Jewish. His father was an engineer who designed buildings. George went to the University of Michigan. He earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1959. He also took many physics classes. Later, he got his PhD in theoretical physics. This was from the California Institute of Technology in 1964. His teacher was the famous physicist Richard Feynman.
Discovering Tiny Particles
After finishing his studies, Zweig suggested a new idea. He said there were tiny particles called quarks. He came up with this idea at CERN. This was around the same time as another scientist, Murray Gell-Mann. Zweig called these particles "aces." He thought there were four types, like the four suits in a deck of cards.
What are Quarks?
The idea of quarks was very important for particle physics. It helped scientists understand how particles work. Quarks are thought to be the basic parts of matter. They make up bigger particles like protons and neutrons. Protons and neutrons are found in the center of every atom.
Explaining Particle Properties
Both Zweig and Gell-Mann realized something. They saw that particles like protons could be made of three smaller parts. These parts had unusual properties. For example, they had only a fraction of an electric charge. Zweig's ideas about quarks were also helped by studying a particle called the φ meson. His work helped explain why some particles decay in a special way. This is now known as the OZI Rule. The "Z" in OZI stands for Zweig!
Murray Gell-Mann received the Nobel Prize in 1969. This was for his work on classifying elementary particles. At that time, the quark theory was still new. It was not fully accepted yet. In 1977, Richard Feynman nominated both Zweig and Gell-Mann for the Nobel Prize again. However, they did not win it that time.
Understanding How We Hear
Later in his career, George Zweig changed his focus. He started to research hearing and neurobiology. This is the study of the brain and nervous system. He studied how sound turns into nerve signals. This happens in the cochlea of the human ear. He also looked at how the brain understands sounds. In 1975, he created a special math tool. It was a version of the continuous wavelet transform. This tool helped him study the ear.
Working in Finance
In 2003, Zweig joined a company called Renaissance Technologies. This company uses math to make money in the stock market. It was started by Jim Simons, a former code breaker. Zweig left the company in 2010. After a few years, he started his own company. It was called Signition. He started it with two younger partners in 2015.
Awards and Recognition
George Zweig has received several important awards:
- MacArthur Prize Fellowship (1981)
- Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences (1996)
- Sakurai Prize (2015)
See also
In Spanish: George Zweig para niños
