In 1969, Murray Gell-Mann received the Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the theory of elementary particles, two years after he was honored by The Franklin Institute for this groundbreaking work. Dr. Gell-Mann's "eightfold way" theory brought order to the chaos created by the discovery of some 100 particles in the atom's nucleus. He found that all of those particles, including the neutron and proton, are composed of fundamental building blocks that he named "quarks." The quarks are permanently confined by forces coming from the exchange of "gluons." He and others later constructed the quantum field theory of quarks and gluons, called "quantum chromodynamics," which seems to account for all the nuclear paticles and their strong interactions.
Dr. Gell-Mann received his B.S. in Physics in 1948, from Yale University (entering the university at age 15) and his Ph.D. in Physics in 1951, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Gell-Mann has been a member of the faculty of the California Institute of Technology since 1955. Prior to this appointment, he spent several years working with the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and in teaching positions at the University of Chicago and Columbia University. Dr. Gell-Mann is an advisor and member of many professional and civic-minded organizations.
Information as of 1967