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Remembering Professor Steven Weinberg (1933–2021)

One of Cambridge University Press’s most distinguished authors, the Nobel Laureate Professor Steven Weinberg, has died at the age of 88.

Aug 05 2021

Professor Weinberg is recognised as one of the architects of the Standard Model of particle physics. In addition to his ground-breaking research in fundamental physics and his science advocacy, he was a prolific author of both academic and popular-level books, with most of his academic works published by Cambridge.

Celebrated for his exceptional physical insight and his gift for clear exposition, Professor Weinberg wrote eight books for Cambridge over a period of 35 years, starting in 1987 with Elementary Particles and the Laws of Physics, which he co-wrote with Richard Feynman.

His most prominent and successful work was The Quantum Theory of Fields, published in three volumes in the late 1990s and reissued in paperback in 2005. It remains required reading for graduate students and researchers in theoretical physics.

More recently, Professor Weinberg worked prolifically on lecture notes, covering topics including Quantum Mechanics and Astrophysics. His final work, published just a few months before his death on 23 July, was Foundations of Modern Physics.

Vince Higgs, Senior Commissioning Editor for Physics and Astronomy, was his Press editor for that final work. He said: “Despite his high stature, Steve Weinberg was a model author, always polite and willing to work with Press staff of all levels at every stage of the process.”

Professor Weinberg’s Press editor for most of the last 20 years, Dr Simon Capelin, added: “I was privileged to work with Steve Weinberg, and met him many times. He was widely acknowledged by his peers as the greatest living physicist, and the first few times I met him were daunting, but I always enjoyed our meetings. We spent time talking about the future of physics, and about music and literature and I came to appreciate his dry sense of humour – he could be very funny.

“Working with Steve was one of the things I value most from my 40 years working at Cambridge University Press.”

Vince Higgs said: “On my last meeting with him in Austin in 2017, he told me why likes writing books: although his body was letting him down as he got older, when he was writing, he felt young again as his mind was perfectly sound. Through his writing, Steve Weinberg leaves behind a legacy that will last long beyond his 88 years.”