Weinberg, Steven (1933-2021), an American physicist, helped develop a theory that unified two of the fundamental forces that are thought to govern the universe—the weak nuclear force and the force of electromagnetism. Also involved in this development were the physicists Sheldon Glashow of the United States and Abdus Salam of Pakistan. For this work, the three scientists shared the 1979 Nobel Prize for physics.
Weinberg’s early research covered a variety of subjects, from the physics of highly unstable subatomic particles called muons to interactions involving the weak nuclear force. In the early 1960’s, he turned to astrophysics and, in 1971, wrote a book, Gravitation and Cosmology (1972). During the 1970’s, his main field of research was the unified theory of weak and electromagnetic interactions. Over the course of his career, he authored a number of science books for general readers, including The First Three Minutes (1979), which explains the big bang theory.
Weinberg was born in New York City. He graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He received his Ph.D. in physics from Princeton in 1957. He held teaching positions at the University of California in Berkeley, the Massachusetts Institue of Technology, and Harvard University. In 1983, he became professor of physics at the University of Texas. Weinberg never retired. He continued teaching until his death on July 23, 2021.
