Privatdozent

Privatdozent

Essays

Richard Feynman’s First Lecture (1940)

“I went through fire on my first.”

Jørgen Veisdal's avatar
Jørgen Veisdal
Apr 23, 2021
∙ Paid
Feynman on the day of his Graduation from Princeton University (1942)

While still a graduate student at Princeton University in 1940, Richard P. Feynman (1918–1988) gave his first lecture in a seminar on electrodynamics, the topic that would eventually earn him the 1965 Nobel Prize in physics. In front of a prestigious audience consisting of Nobel laureates Albert Einstein (1879–1955), Wolfgang Pauli (1900–1958), and Eugene Wigner (1902–1995) as well as the Hungarian polymath John von Neumann (1903–1957), Feynman lectured on the current state of what is now known as the Wheeler- Feynman absorber theory.

User's avatar

Continue reading this post for free, courtesy of Jørgen Veisdal.

Or purchase a paid subscription.
© 2025 Privatdozent · Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture