Gerald Feinberg

Gerald Feinberg ( born May 27, 1933, New York City, † April 21, 1992 ) was a physicist at Columbia University and futurologist.

Feinberg studied at Columbia University (Bachelor 1953), where he received his doctorate at TD Lee in 1957 and since 1959 in the Department of Physics and since 1965 professor. From 1980 to 1982 he was Dean of the Faculty of Physics. 1956/7 he was at the Institute for Advanced Study and 1963/4 at Churchill College, Cambridge. 1973/4, he was a Guggenheim Fellow Visiting Professor at Rockefeller University. He was also a visiting scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory and at SLAC.

Feinberg said in 1958 the existence of two neutrino species ahead ( of muon neutrinos in addition to the already well-known electron-neutrino ), which was confirmed by experiments of his colleagues at Columbia University, Leon Lederman, Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger 1962. The three received the Nobel Prize.

Feinberg also coined the concept of tachyons. He also studied more speculative ideas and was, among other things a proponent of cryonics. He was a member of the Foresight Institute.