Rod Crewther

Rodney James Crewther (23 September 1945 – 17 December 2020) was a physicist, notable in the field of gauge field theories.

Rod Crewther
Born(1945-09-23)September 23, 1945
DiedDecember 17, 2020(2020-12-17) (aged 75)
Adelaide, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Alma materCalifornia Institute of Technology
Melbourne University
Known forGauge field theory
AwardsFulbright scholarship
Scientific career
FieldsPhysicist
InstitutionsUniversity of Adelaide
CERN
Cornell University
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
University of Berne
University of Dortmund
Max Planck Institute
Doctoral advisorMurray Gell-Mann
InfluencesRichard Feynman

Education

After gaining his MSc at Melbourne University, Crewther was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to the California Institute of Technology. He studied under the tutelage of Nobel prizewinner Murray Gell-Mann and completed his doctorate, in 1971, after successfully defending his dissertation against the renowned theorist Richard Feynman. His thesis was entitled Spontaneous Breakdown of Conformal and Chiral Invariance.[1]

Career

After his PhD, he held postdoctoral appointments at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois. Subsequently, he spent twelve years in Europe, six of them as a Staff Member of the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) in Geneva, and the remainder as a Research Associate at the University of Berne, University of Dortmund, and at the Max Planck Institute in Munich. Crewther was then appointed as a senior lecturer in physics at the University of Adelaide.

Having a keen interest in politics, Crewther was vice-president of the University of Adelaide branch of the National Tertiary Education Union.[2] He also served on the University Council.[3]

Teaching

He designed the honours physics course "Gauge Field Theories." He also lectured on Quantum Mechanics III, Advanced Dynamics and Relativity, and Honours Quantum Field Theory. For courses Quantum Mechanics II, Honours Relativistic Quantum Mechanics and Particle Physics, and Classical Fields and Mathematical Methods, his notes were followed by his successors.

Dr Crewther also taught a 4-week module of Physics 1B at the University of Adelaide where he hosted mechanics lectures that focused on the centre of mass, rotation, angular momentum and gyroscopic precession.[4]

Death

He died in 2020 around Christmas time. He died from cancer.[5]

Notes and references
  1. http://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=102481
  2. "Officers and Staff - University of Adelaide". National Tertiary Education Union. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
  3. "University Council Photographs". University of Adelaide Archives. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
  4. https://myuni.adelaide.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/execute/modulepage/view?course_id=_326061_1&cmp_tab_id=_143740_1&mode=view
  5. Ross, Edward (27 December 2020). "Rod Crewther: 23/09/1945-17/12/2020". Skeptric.com. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
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