John Walter Clark (born 1935), is

Wayman Crow Wayman Crow (March 7, 1808 – May 10, 1885) was one of the founders of Washington University, a St. Louis businessman, and a politician. Early life Born in Hartford, Kentucky on March 7, 1808, Crow was the youngest of eight children. His paren ...

Professor of Physics emeritus at

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

, and a recipient of the Eugene Feenberg Medal in 1987 for his contributions to

many-body theory The many-body problem is a general name for a vast category of physical problems pertaining to the properties of microscopic systems made of many interacting particles. ''Microscopic'' here implies that quantum mechanics has to be used to provid ...

Biography

John Clark was born in 1935 in

Lockhart, Texas Lockhart is a city and the county seat of Caldwell County, Texas, United States. According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 14,379. History The city of Lockhart is named after Byrd Lockhart, an assistant surveyo ...

. He received his BS and MA degrees in physics from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

in 1955 and 1957, respectively. He then earned his Ph.D. in Physics under the supervision of

Eugene Feenberg Eugene Feenberg (October 6, 1906 in Fort Smith, Arkansas – November 7, 1977) was an American physicist who made contributions to quantum mechanics and nuclear physics. Education In 1929, Feenberg graduated from the University of Texas at Au ...

at Washington University in St. Louis in 1959. He was an

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

Postdoctoral Fellow at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

advised by

Eugene Wigner Eugene Paul "E. P." Wigner ( hu, Wigner Jenő Pál, ; November 17, 1902 – January 1, 1995) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who also contributed to mathematical physics. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 "for his con ...

and a NATO postdoctoral fellow at

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

and

Saclay Saclay () is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. It had a population of 3,067 in 2006. It is best known for the large scientific facility CEA Saclay, mostly dealing with nuclear and pa ...

from 1959 to 1963. He named his son Eugene after his advisors. Author is his daughter. He became an assistant professor of physics at Washington University in 1963, was department chair from 2002-2007, and succeeded

Edwin T. Jaynes Edwin Thompson Jaynes (July 5, 1922 – April 30, 1998) was the Wayman Crow Distinguished Professor of Physics at Washington University in St. Louis. He wrote extensively on statistical mechanics and on foundations of probability and statistic ...

as the Wayman Crow Professor of Physics.

Research and teaching

Clark is notable for his contributions to nuclear physics and many-body theory, but later in his career also turned his interests to neural nets. He taught "Physics of the Brain" for many years. He supervised over two dozen Ph.D. students and was notable for promoting women in the field.

Awards

* Fellow,

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

* Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship (1965) * Eugene Feenberg Medal for Many-Body Physics (1987) * Wayman Crow Professorship in Physics (1999)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, John Walter 1935 births Living people Washington University in St. Louis alumni Washington University in St. Louis faculty Washington University physicists Physicists from Missouri Scientists from Missouri American nuclear physicists Fellows of the American Physical Society