Philip Pearle
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September 24, 1936
Philip Pearle | |
|---|---|
| Born | Philip Mark Pearle September 24, 1936 Brooklyn, NY, US |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | Continuous Spontaneous Localization (CSL) theory |
| Spouse | Betty Deborah Cooper Pearle |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | (1963) |
| Doctoral advisor | Kerson Huang |
Philip Mark Pearle (born September 24, 1936) is an American physicist and professor of physics emeritus at Hamilton College, where he taught from 1969 to 2001.
He is known for his contributions to the foundations of quantum mechanics,[1][2] particularly the development of the Continuous Spontaneous Localization (CSL) theory, designed to resolve the quantum measurement problem.[3]
Raised in New York City, he attended the Bronx High School of Science from 1949 to 1953. He studied electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in the cooperative program with Bell Labs, earning his B.S. in 1957 and M.S. in 1958, with a master’s thesis on ferroelectric barium titanate.[4] He completed his Ph.D. in physics at MIT in 1963 with a dissertation on Feynman diagram summations and low-energy pion–nucleon scattering.[5]
Academic career
Pearle began his academic career as a teaching assistant at MIT from 1960 to 1963 and then served as an instructor at Harvard University from 1963 to 1966.[4] He held an assistant professorship at Case Institute of Technology from 1966 to 1969 before joining Hamilton College, where he served as assistant professor from 1969 to 1972, associate professor (1972–1976), and professor (1976–2001).[6] He chaired the Physics Department from 1984 to 1994 and was named Hamilton’s first Kenan Professor (1976–1979). Pearle became professor emeritus in 2001.[7]
