Walter Lewin

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Walter Lewin at a lecture (2011)

Walter Hendrik Gustav Lewin (born January 29, 1936 ) is a Dutch physicist and was a professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) before MIT separated from him (see below).

Career

Lewin received his doctorate in nuclear physics from the TU Delft in 1965 . Immediately afterwards he went to MIT as a post-doctoral student to research astronomical X-rays , making a name for himself in the field of X-ray astronomy .

Lewin was particularly well known for his vivid physics lectures. Many of them have been broadcast on US television for years. About MIT OpenCourseWare could be up to the separation of the MIT Lewin (see below ) free of lectures on video recordings Newtonian mechanics , electricity and magnetism , and vibrations and waves to retrieve. In addition to the quality of the content of his lectures, his personal style on the blackboard has also attracted great attention and admiration. Videos of his perfection in drawing dotted lines have been viewed a million times. He uses the vibration that arises when you hold the chalk in a certain way and move it over the board at a certain angle. This also creates the characteristic, engine-like noise.

In 2009, Lewin retired from the faculty at MIT. Since then he has not taught directly there, but has worked on MOOCs based on video recordings of his lectures. Lewin operates a YouTube channel where he regularly publishes old lectures and snippets of scientific problems.

Separation from MIT

In December 2014, the honorary title “Emeritus” was revoked from the university after an investigation by MIT revealed that several female students were affected by improper behavior on the part of Lewin. This investigation was initiated by the complaint of an adult MOOC student from Europe with recurrent psychological deficits, who felt compelled to role-play with the almost 80-year-old via online media in the course of the summer of 2014, and who talked about suggestive remarks and exchanges complained of images with clearly sexual content. The MIT attached particular importance to Lewin's improper behavior because this, in violation of an explicit MIT codex , took place in connection with a MOOC under the auspices of MIT. Lewin has not made any public statements on these incidents.

Publications

  • with Warren Goldstein: For the Love of Physics . Simon & Schuster, New York City 2011. ISBN 978-1-4391-0827-7 .
    • German: It works. The pleasure of finally understanding physics . Translated from English by Helmut Reuter. Knaus Verlag, Munich 2011. ISBN 978-3-8135-0453-8 .

Web links

Commons : Walter Lewin  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ MIT indefinitely removes online physics lectures and courses by Walter Lewin - press release, December 8, 2014
  2. ^ Walter Lewin - Dotted Lines.Retrieved October 29, 2015
  3. ^ Lectures by Walter Lewin. They will make you ♥ Physics. - YouTube. Retrieved August 1, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Leon Lin: MIT cuts ties with Walter Lewin after online harassment probe . In: The Tech . tape 134 , no. 60 . Cambridge December 9, 2014 ( http://tech.mit.edu/V134/N60/walterlewin.html ).
personal data
SURNAME Lewin, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lewin, Walter Hendrik Gustav (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch physicist
DATE OF BIRTH January 29, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH The hague