Benjamin W. Lee

Infobox Korean name
title=Korean name
hangul=이휘소
hanja=李輝昭
rr=I Hwiso
mr=I Hwiso

Infobox_Scientist
name = Benjamin Whiso Lee
caption =


imagesize = 180
birth_date = birth date|1935|1|1|mf=y
birth_place = Seoul, Korea (Gyeongseong, Empire of Japan)
residence =
nationality = USA
death_date = death date and age|1977|6|16|1935|1|1
death_place = Illinois, United States
field = Physics
work_institutions = Institute for Advanced Study University of Pennsylvania Stony Brook University University of Chicago Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
alma_mater = Kyunggi High School Seoul National University Miami University University of Pittsburgh University of Pennsylvania
doctoral_advisor = Abraham Klein
doctoral_students =
known_for = Weak Interaction Gauge theory
prizes =
religion =


footnotes =

Benjamin Whiso Lee (Korean language: 이휘소, Lee Whi-so) (January 1, 1935 - June 16, 1977) or Ben Lee, was a Korean-American theoretical physicist. His work in theorical particle physics exerted great influence on the development of the standard model in the late 20th century especially on the renormalization and the charm quark.

Biography

Benjamin W. Lee was born in Seoul, Korea. Before finishing highschool he entered the department of Chemical Engineering at Seoul National University, at the top of his class. During his college days he transferred to United States and graduated from Miami University. And he received a master degree from the University of Pittsburgh, and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania at the age of 25. Lee worked at Institute for Advanced Study and was a professor of physics at University of Pennsylvania, SUNY at Stony Brook, University of Chicago, and head of the theoretical physics department at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. On June 16, 1977, he was killed in a car accident not far from Kewanee, Illinois. He was regarded by his peers as a world-class elementary particle physicist at the time of his sudden death. Lee studied symmetry principles and weak interactions.

Controversy over Death

In Korea, there was a popular novel of him with false information about his academic subject and political affiliation. That fiction described that he tried to help South Korea's dictatorship develop nuclear weapons and intended to make some relation between his death and CIA. But rather he opposed vigorously the autocratic system of South Korea at that time and he canceled every programs he designed for Korean graduate education about particle physics in opposition to that government. [cite book | title = Lee Whiso : a critical biography (Korean) | author = JooSang Kang | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=leQMMwAACAAJ | publisher = LUX Media | isbn = 898982270X | year = 2007 ]

Notes

External links

* [http://history.fnal.gov/lee_memoriam.html In Memoriam Benjamin W. Lee] (Fermilab)
* [http://felix.physics.sunysb.edu/PAhist/blee.html Benjamin W. Lee] , [http://lutece.fnal.gov/Essays/BWL.html Benjamin W. Lee] by Chris Quigg and Steven Weinberg (Physics Today, Sep 1977)
* [http://history.fnal.gov/significant_staff.html#Benjamin_Lee Benjamin Lee comments on HEP discoveries] (May 13, 1976)
* [http://history.fnal.gov/lee_conference.html Ben Lee Memorial International Conference at Fermi Lab]
* [http://www.phy.duke.edu/~myhan/kaf0205.html Benjamin Whiso Lee: Korea's Oppenheimer?] by Moo-Young Han
* [http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200308/prl-1.cfm PRL Top Ten: #1 A Model of Leptons] (an APS News interview with Steven Weinberg)
* [http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1999/thooft-autobio.html Gerardus 't Hooft – Autobiography] (for The Nobel Prize in Physics 1999)
* [http://theory.caltech.edu/people/politzer/NOBEL_LECTURE/NOBEL_LECTURE.html The Dilemma of Attribution] by David Politzer for the Nobel Lecture in 2004