Hugh Everett III
Hugh Everett III
Hugh Everett III | |
|---|---|
 Hugh Everett in 1964 | |
| Born | November 11, 1930 |
| Died | July 19, 1982 (aged 51) |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Alma mater | Catholic University of America Princeton University (Ph.D.) |
| Known for | Many-worlds interpretation Everett's theorem[1][2][3] |
| Children | Elizabeth Everett, Mark Oliver Everett |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics Operations research Optimization Game theory |
| Institutions | Institute for Defense Analyses American Management Systems Monowave Corporation |
| Doctoral advisor | John Archibald Wheeler |
Hugh Everett III (/ˈɛvərɪt/; November 11, 1930 – July 19, 1982) was an American physicist who first proposed the many-worlds interpretation (MWI) of quantum physics, which he termed his "relative state" formulation.[a] In contrast to the then-dominant Copenhagen interpretation, the MWI posits that the wave function never collapses and that all possibilities of a quantum superposition are objectively real.
Discouraged by the scorn[5] of other physicists for MWI, Everett ended his physics career after completing his PhD. Afterwards, he developed the use of generalized Lagrange multipliers for operations research and applied this commercially as a defense analyst and a consultant. In poor health later in life, he died at the age of 51 in 1982. He is the father of musician Mark Oliver Everett.
Although largely disregarded until near the end of Everett's lifetime, the MWI received more credibility with the discovery of quantum decoherence in the 1970s and has received increased attention in recent decades, becoming one of the mainstream interpretations of quantum mechanics alongside Copenhagen, pilot wave theories, and consistent histories.