William E. Caswell

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William E. Caswell
Naval Surface Weapons Center
ThesisAsymptotic Behavior of Non-Abelian Gauge Theories to Two-Loop Order (1975)
Doctoral advisorCurtis Callan

William Edward Caswell (June 22, 1947 – September 11, 2001) was an American physicist. He did work in

FORTRAN and punch cards demonstrated the potential of computer algebra. Caswell died during the September 11 attacks as a passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 77, which was crashed into the Pentagon
.

Personal life and background

William Edward Caswell was born on June 22, 1947

Boston, Massachusetts, the eldest of six children. He lived most of his life in Silver Spring, Maryland, residing there until his death.[2] He and his wife, Jean, had a daughter.[3]

Education

Caswell attended the

elementary particle theory. He received his Ph.D. in physics in January 1975, and subsequently did postdoctoral work at Stanford University and Brown University.[2][4]

Career

With his thesis advisor

Feynman loops in order to calculate elementary particle properties. His thesis, published in 1974, was groundbreaking work that encouraged and shaped future research. To quote his obituary in Physics Today: "Today the interpretation of many experiments in high-energy physics requires multiloop quantum chromodynamics calculations, and Bill's result is a prime ingredient in every such calculation. It is also a critical ingredient in calculating the running of the coupling constants of the Standard Model's supersymmetric extensions, calculations that are interpreted these days as evidence for both grand unification and low-energy supersymmetry. Thus Bill's work is also crucial to our thinking about physics beyond the Standard Model."[4]

Caswell did work in

gauge symmetry and renormalization group ideas, in which he himself made several pioneering contributions, the highpoint of which was his 1972 calculation of the beta function to two-loop accuracy. According to Physics Today, this effort "required unusual courage and determination, since the calculation simultaneously features all the notorious subtleties of gauge invariance, overlapping divergences, and renormalization."[4]

In the age of punchcards,

FORTRAN and paper output, Caswell felt that pure hand calculation was excruciating to perform and impractical to check. Looking into the then-uncharted world of machine symbolic calculation, he adapted Tony Hearn's REDUCE program in order to graph out calculations. Today his work is utilized in the multiloop quantum chromodynamics calculations that are used in high-energy physics experiments.[4]

Caswell and

charmonium.[4]

Caswell was an assistant professor at Brown University from 1977 to 1979, and an assistant professor at the University of Maryland from 1979 to 1983. In 1983, Caswell left academic work for a position as a civilian scientist in the

Naval Surface Weapons Center, first at White Oak, Maryland, formerly the Naval Ordnance Laboratory. In 1985, he joined a major classified defense technology project and rose to a position of technical responsibility, directing a team of more than 100 scientists.[4]

Death and legacy

Caswell’s name is located on Panel S-70 of the National September 11 Memorial’s South Pool, along with those of other passengers of Flight 77.

Caswell, on a business trip in Los Angeles, was on American Airlines Flight 77, which was crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.[2]

At the National September 11 Memorial, he is memorialized at the South Pool, on Panel S-70.[1]

His parents were involved in the design of a memorial to 9/11 victims in Rockville, Maryland.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b William E. Caswell. Memorial Guide: National 9/11 Memorial. Retrieved October 28, 2011.
  2. ^
    National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial
    . Retrieved September 11, 2013.
  3. ^ Whitlock, Craig (September 13, 2001). "William E. Caswell". The Washington Post.
  4. ^
    doi:10.1063/1.1445564
    .
  5. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.33.244
    .
  6. ^ Malin, Marny (September 8, 2003). "Memorial park honors victims of 9-11 terrorism". Frederick News-Post.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to William E. Caswell.
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