Glashow, Sheldon Lee (1932-…), an American physicist, shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 1979 with Steven Weinberg and Abdus Salam. Glashow received the award for his pioneering work on the electroweak theory. This theory, completed in the 1970’s, discusses the relationship between two of the four fundamental forces of nature, the electromagnetic force and the weak force. Through these forces, subatomic particles (particles smaller than atoms) interact with each other. The electromagnetic force holds molecules together and keeps electrons in orbit around an atomic nucleus. The weak force causes radioactive decay in the nucleus (see Subatomic particle). Glashow also predicted the existence of the charm quark, one of the quarks that make up elementary particles.
Glashow was born in New York City. In 1958, he received a doctoral degree from Harvard University. He has served as a professor of physics at Harvard since 1966.
