Murray Gell-Mann

Murray Gell-Mann (; September 15, 1929 – May 24, 2019) was an American theoretical physicist who played a preeminent role in the development of the theory of elementary particles. Gell-Mann introduced the concept of quarks as the fundamental building blocks of the strongly interacting particles, and the renormalization group as a foundational element of quantum field theory and statistical mechanics. He received the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions.

Gell-Mann played key roles in developing the concept of chirality in the theory of the weak interactions and spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in the strong interactions, which controls the physics of the light mesons. In the 1970s he was a co-inventor of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) which explains the confinement of quarks in mesons and baryons and forms a large part of the Standard Model of elementary particles and forces.

Awards: Guggenheim Fellowship, Nobel Prize in Physics, Humanist of the Year, William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement, Helmholtz Medal, John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science, Franklin Medal, Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award, Fellow of the American Physical Society, Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics Education: Yale College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School

Source: Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Gell-Mann