John Archibald Wheeler (1911-2008) was a highly influential American theoretical physicist who significantly contributed to the revitalization of general relativity in the United States after World War II. He is credited with popularizing the term "black hole" and coining terms like "wormhole" and "quantum foam". Wheeler worked with Niels Bohr to explain nuclear fission and collaborated with Albert Einstein on unified field theory.
Wheeler made substantial contributions to quantum mechanics, nuclear and particle physics, astrophysics, and information theory. He developed the "S-matrix", an important tool in particle physics, and co-authored the influential general relativity textbook "Gravitation". During World War II, he contributed to the Manhattan Project and later helped develop the hydrogen bomb. He taught physics at Princeton University for many years and later directed the Center for Theoretical Physics at the University of Texas at Austin. Wheeler received numerous awards, including the Enrico Fermi Award and the Wolf Prize in Physics.
