1936-
Physicist

Background.

Wilson was born on 8 June 1936 in Waltham, Massachusetts, the oldest of six children. His father, Edgar B. Wilson Jr., was a Harvard physicist. From an early age Kenneth Wilson displayed an interest in science. He earned his B.A. from Harvard and a Ph.D. in 1961 from the California Institute of Technology. At Cal Tech, Wilson worked on quantum theory under Murray Gell-Mann, whose own work had garnered him the Nobel Prize in physics for his theoretical work on quarks. From 1959 to 1962 Wilson was a junior fellow at Harvard University's Society of Fellows, and in 1962- 1963 he worked at the European Organization of Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva. Wilson became a member of Cornell University's faculty in 1963. In 1975 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Wilson won the Heinemann Prize in 1973, the Botzmann Medal in 1975, and the Wolf Prize in...