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Eugen Feenberg was Wayman Crow Professor of Physics at
Washington University in St. Louis from 1946 to 1977 and is regarded as a highly
pivotal figure in the promotion of many-body physics. Feenberg is noted for his
contributions in quantum fluids, quantum mechanics, nuclear shell structure, elementary
excitations, energy perturbation, and helium atoms.
Eugene Feenberg emerges in the historical records of twentieth-century
science as a leading pioneer in the application of quantum mechanics to nuclei and
superfluid helium. In seeking an understanding of the behavior of these systems,
he was not content with phenomenological descriptions or oversimplified models
made popular by their tractability. Rather, his major contributions stemmed from
a continuing quest (almost in his own words) for -
Quantitative microscopic prediction of the observable properties of strongly
interacting quantum many-body systems under realistic conditions of in-
teraction, density, and temperature.
This is often referred to as ab initio theory (although the term has seen much
abuse in recent years).
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