One of the most renowned scientists of his time, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1980, along with Julian Schwinger and Shin’ichirō Tomonaga, for their contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics

Involved in the creation of the atomic bomb during WWII, and is usually credited as having pioneered quantum computing

His work also included the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, and his proposal of the parton model for particle physics

Helped popularize physics through books and lectures, including a talk on nanotechnology; and developed the Fenyman diagrams, a pictorial representation scheme for the mathematical expressions describing the behavior of subatomic particles

Member of the Rogers Commission in the 1980s, the panel that investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

Held the Richard C. Tolman professorship in theoretical physics at CalTech