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Sylvan Schweber
Obtained his PhO in theoretica/ physics from Princeton University in 1952. He
thereafter was a postdoctora/ fellow with Gian-Car/o. Wick at Pittsburgh and
with Hans Bethe at Cornell. Since 1955 he has been at Brandeis University
where he is present/y the Koret Professar of the History of /deas and professar
of Physics. Since the ear/y 1980s he has focused his research interests on the
history of science and the history of modern physics in particu/ar. He is a facu/ty
associate in the department of the history of science at Harvrd University. He
the author of a textbook on re/ativistic quantum fie/d theory (1961), and more
recent/y of a history of quantum e/ectrodynamics (1994), and of a study in the
paralle//ives of Hans Bethe and J. Robert Oppenheimer (2000).
Abstract: Fermi and Quantum Electrodynamics (QED)
Between 1928 and 1932 Fermi wrote several fundamental papers elucidating
in a readily vizualizable and intuitive way the physics that results from the
interaction of charged particles with the electromagnetic field when both
are quantized. I will review these contributions with special emphasis on his
1932 Reviews of Modern Physics article from which an entire generation of
physicists learned QED.
