Politzer, Hugh David, 1949–, American physicist, b. Mineola, N.Y., Ph.D. Harvard, 1974. Politzer has been a professor at the California Institute of Technology since 1977. He was a co-recipient, with David Gross and Frank Wilczek, of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for their development in 1973 of a mathematical framework that led to the theory of quantum chromodynamics (QCD), which explains how the nucleus of the atom works. QCD, which is concerned with strong interactions, was an important contribution to the standard model of particle physics, which describes all physics in terms of four forces or interactions.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Physics: Biographies
