… Nobel laureate Sheldon Glashow told the Boston Globe. “… within the community of theoretical physicists, he’s kind of a major god. He is the physicist’s physicist.”

Coleman’s lectures at Harvard were also legendary. Students in one quantum field theory course created T-shirts bearing his image and a collection of his most noted quotations, among them: “Not only God knows, I know, and by the end of the semester, you will know.” Despite this acclaim, he did not generally enjoy teaching or mentoring graduate students:

I hate [teaching]. You do it as part of the job. Well, that’s of course false … or maybe more true than false when I say I hate it. … But I certainly would be just as happy if I had no graduate students. … Occasionally there is a graduate student who is a joy to collaborate with. Both David Politzer and Erick Weinberg were of this kind, but they were essentially almost mature physicists. They were very bright by the time they came to me. In general, working with a graduate student is like teaching a course. It’s tedious, unpleasant work. A pain in the neck. You do it because you’re paid to do it. If I weren’t paid to do it I certainly would never do it.

— Wikipedia on Sidney Coleman

2012.04.17 Tuesday ACHK