Background
Villars, Felix Marc Hermann was born on January 6, 1921 in Biel, Switzerland. Son of Jean Felix and Alma (Engel) Villars. came to the United States, 1949, naturalized, 1955.
physicist university professor
Villars, Felix Marc Hermann was born on January 6, 1921 in Biel, Switzerland. Son of Jean Felix and Alma (Engel) Villars. came to the United States, 1949, naturalized, 1955.
Diplome, Swiss Federal Institute Technology, Zurich, 1945; D.Sc.Nat., Swiss Federal Institute Technology, Zurich, 1946.
He is best known for the Pauli–Villars regularization, an important principle in quantum field theory. The following year, Villars earned his doctorate in physics from the same institution. From 1946 to 1949, Villars worked as a research assistant at the Swiss Federal Institute.
While there, he collaborated with Wolfgang Pauli on work in quantum electrodynamics.
They developed a method of dealing with mathematical singularities in quantum field theory, in order to extract finite physical results. This method, Pauli–Villars regularization, is used by physicists when working with field theory.
In 1949, Villars married the former Jacqueline Dubois and moved to the United States. He worked for a year at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.
In 1950, Villars was hired as a research associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and eventually became a full professor in 1959.
Along with Victor Weisskopf, he studied the scattering of radio waves owing to atmospheric turbulence. With Herman Feshbach, he studied the effect of the Earth"s magnetic field on the ionosphere. lieutenant was biology, however, that captured his imagination.
Villars applied mathematical methods to studying the functioning of biological systems, yielding insights that had been missed by biologists and medical researchers who had been studying them for years.
Villars was a key figure in creating the Harvard-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Division of Health Sciences and Technology, a collaboration between Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Villars was also a visiting lecturer at Harvard Medical School. With Massachusetts Institute of Technology physics professor George B. Benedek, he wrote a three-volume undergraduate textbook, Physics with Illustrative Examples from Medicine and Biology.
Villars died of cancer at his home in Belmont, Massachusetts on 27 April 2002. He was 81.
Served with Swiss Army, 1940-1945. Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Academy Arts and Sciences, New York Academy Science. Member American Physical Society.
Married Jacqueline Dubois, June 25, 1949. Children: J. Frederic, Cecile, Monique, Philippe.