1939年,費曼本科畢業,進入普林斯頓大學讀研究所,成為青年學者約翰·惠勒的學生。在他讀研期間,同學們就一直傳說有一個很厲害的新生在專業方面上積累的知識已經多到完全不用參加任何課程。[14]一位名叫H. H. Barschall的同學有一次碰到一道難題,問了幾個教授後也還是算不明白,最後抱着試試看的心態去問了費曼,然後得到了費曼給出的又快又完整的解答。[14]Barschall甚至為此一度自卑,懷疑自己是不是選錯了專業。[14]
英文:「He [Stueckelberg] did the work and walks alone toward the sunset; and, here I [Feynman] am, covered in all the glory, which rightfully should be his!」。[31]
在1959年的一次名為《底部還有大量空間》("There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom")的演講中,費曼提出了納米技術,並樂觀地分析了其技術實現的可行性。他向學生們懸賞攻克相關技術難題,並在幾年後向完成挑戰的學生們兌現了獎勵。在這次演講中,他還預言了納米醫學的前景。[36]在另一次於日本召開的仁科芳雄紀念會上,費曼在題為《未來的計算機》的演講中討論了並行計算和量子計算機的可行性。[37]
費曼是一位傑出的教育家,主張教育應注重興趣與方法的引導,而非直接羅列和灌輸實用的知識。他認為平庸而沉悶的傳統課程難以使學生真正接觸到物理的引人入勝之處,他為此雄心勃勃地籌劃了《費曼物理學講義》,決心用全新、有趣而統一的觀點展現出整個物理學基礎。加州理工學院後來專門設立了一個「理查德·費曼傑出教育獎」(Richard P. Feynman Prize For Excellence In Teaching)。
費曼個性鮮明,是一個一反傳統的特立獨行的科學頑童。理論物理學家楊振寧評價費曼是一個「一個幾乎任何事情都與眾不同的人」。[62]楊振寧除充分肯定費曼的天賦和成就外,也認為過於忽視傳統學習方法是費曼的短處。[59]里昂納德·曼羅迪諾在《費曼的彩虹》一書中認為「對費曼而言,物理學和生活都是由本能與靈感主宰,因此他對規則和社會慣例才會不屑一顧。他忽視物理學的傳統方法,發明自己的方法、自己的路徑積分、以及自己的費曼圖。他也忽視學術文化,發明自己的文化,和學生在「油膩」用餐,或在脫衣舞俱樂部研究他的物理學,他之所以做研究是出於熱愛、而非抱負。如果他的行為不受認可,他根本也不會在乎別人怎麼想。」[63]理論物理學家李奧納特·蘇士侃也曾在一次題為《我的好友理查德·費曼》的TED演講上評價費曼是一個非常非常偉大的[註 3]科學家、很棒的演員和超群的教師。蘇士侃認為費曼善於引人注目、性情急躁、無禮、不服輸、愛攀比智力、自負但又有趣,還厭惡在學術研究中故弄玄虛、賣弄術語、做作和假大空的行為。[64]美國認知心理學家史迪芬·平克在致《Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science》一書的推薦辭中說費曼是上世紀最偉大的科學家;理論物理學家布萊恩·葛林也在同一本書的推薦辭中稱讚費曼的成就是「具有穿透力的突破」(「突破」一詞用的是複數)。[65]微軟創始人比爾·蓋茨認為,費曼的生動講解使科學充滿了趣味,而且絕無其他人能夠比他做得更好。[66][67]Google創始人謝爾蓋·布林從青年時代起就一直喜歡費曼,認為費曼對自己的人生軌跡影響很大,對他讚不絕口。[68][69][70]實驗物理學家朱棣文受邀並見到自己的崇拜對象[71][72]費曼時,費曼想藉助了解朱棣文的研究方向的機會,趁機跟他比一下誰更聰明[73]。朱棣文感嘆很少有科學家在獲得大獎後還能擁有費曼一樣輕鬆和愛玩的生活態度。[73]大數學家邁克爾·阿蒂亞晚年在其「論證」黎曼猜想的發布會上引用費曼對精細結構常數的評論時,順便稱讚了費曼的傑出。數學家陶哲軒把費曼的名言「事實證明真相總比你想的簡單。」(The truth always turns out to be simpler than you thought.)放在自己的主頁名言欄中。[74]
實驗物理學家埃米利奧·塞格雷曾在1980年出版的《從X射線到夸克》(From X-rays to Quarks: Modern Physicists and Their Discoveries)一書中,把朗道與費曼以及楊振寧三人並列為近一二十年來少數能在許多不同領域都有傑出成就的全才物理學家。[75]數學專業出身的理論物理學家弗里曼·戴森評價說:「在遇到費曼之前,我已經發表過許多數學論文,這些論文充滿了小聰明,但總的來說缺乏重要性。當我遇到費曼時,我立即知道我已經進入另一個世界。他對發表漂亮的論文毫無興趣。他在為理解大自然的作品而奮鬥,試圖徹底重建物理學,我還從未見誰有過如此高昂的奮鬥熱情... 施溫格和朝永振一郎已經各自獨立地取得了成功,在計算相同的物理量時,他們使用了更為費力、更為複雜的方法,而費曼則可以從他的圖表直接得出那些量。施溫格和朝永振一郎沒有重建物理學,他們在撞見物理學時也拿它來用,但是他們僅僅是介紹新的數學方法從物理學中析取數字... 我寫了一篇為《朝永振一郎、施溫格和費曼的放射理論》的論文,闡釋為什麼說這三個理論看起來不同而實質上一樣。在我的文章中,我謹慎地待三個主角,給予他們同等的尊嚴和崇敬;但我心裡知道,費曼是這三人中最偉大的一個... 這些重要的東西是誠實,獨立,承認自己的無知。他憎惡等級制度,一生享受着人們的友誼。他像莎士比亞一樣,是個有喜劇天賦的演員。」[76]費曼的老對手蓋爾曼在費曼葬禮的訃聞中寫了一些不服氣的話;「在理查的風格中,我向來喜歡他不浮誇的表達方式。有些理論學家以華麗的數學語言或刻意虛飾的結構,裝飾有時其實相當平庸的作品,令人生厭。但理查總是以直接的方式,表達強而有力、富有巧思與原創性的構想,令人激賞。但我對理查廣為人知的另一個風格則不是那麼欣賞。他總是把自己圍在神話色彩中,花許多時間與精力創造有關自己的逸事……當然,許多逸事是經由理查自己所說的故事構成,在這些故事中他通常是英雄,而且只要有機會,他總是顯得比其他人聰明。我得坦陳這些年來,身為他一直想超越的競爭對手,我一直感到不自在;而且我發現和他共事並不那麼意氣相投,因為他似乎比較喜歡把我們視為『你』和『我』,而不是『我們』。或許對他來說,要跟一個不只是襯托他那些構想的人合作很難……」[77]據蘇聯理論物理學家和核武器專家維塔利·金茲堡回憶,在朗道的物理學家實力排名中,費曼被排在了「1.0」級(高於朗道本人,且和玻爾、維爾納·海森堡和保羅·狄拉克等人齊平)。[78]金茲堡對於朗道把費曼列入「1.0」級比較意外。[78]金茲堡雖然稱讚費曼是無可爭議的擁有過人智慧的物理學家,但他還是認為費曼相比之下遜於被列入同一級別的其他人。[78]金茲堡猜測朗道可能是特別鍾愛費曼圖,而且覺得自己(朗道)沒有能力創造出這樣直觀易懂的表示方法。[78]
Richard P. Feynman. Ralph Leighton , 編. What Do You Care What Other People Think? [你管別人怎麼想?]. 諾頓出版社. 1988. ISBN 0-393-02659-0(英語).(主要含和第一任妻子,同時也是初戀女友的故事,以及調查挑戰者號太空梭災難的主要故事。)
中國漢譯本:費曼. Ralph Leighton , 編. What Do You Care What Other People Think? [你幹嗎在乎別人怎麼想?:充滿好奇心的費曼]. 李沉簡 (漢譯者). 北京: 中國社會科學出版社. 1999. ISBN 7-5004-2263-6(英語).
台灣漢譯本:費曼. What Do You Care What Other People Think? [你管別人怎麼想:科學奇才費曼博士]. 尹萍、王碧 (漢譯者). 天下文化. 2018. ISBN 978-986-479-483-6(中文(臺灣)).
Richard P. Feynman. The Meaning of It All: Thought of a Citizen Scientist! [這一切的意義:公民科學家的思想]. Perseus Press. 1999. ISBN 978-0-7382-0166-5(英語).
Richard P. Feynman. 傑弗裡·羅賓斯 (編輯) , 編. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: the Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman [發現事理的樂趣:費曼最佳短篇作品集]. Perseus Press. 1999. ISBN 978-0-7382-0108-5. (內容與《別鬧了!費曼先生》有大量重複)
中國大陸漢譯本:Richard P. Feynman. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out [發現的樂趣]. 走進費曼叢書. 張郁乎 (譯者); 吳煒 (責任編輯); 賈平靜 (責任編輯) 第1版. 湖南科學技術出版社. 2005. ISBN 7-5357-4415-X.),
Ralph Leighton. Tuva Or Bust!: Richard Feynman's Last Journey [前往圖瓦或者選擇認輸:理查德·費曼最後的旅程] 1. W W Norton & Co Inc. 1991. ISBN 9780393029536(英語).
台灣漢譯本:Ralph Leighton. Tuva Or Bust!: Richard Feynman's Last Journey [費曼的最後旅程] 1. 新新聞文化事業股份有限公司. 1998. ISBN 9578306040(中文(臺灣)).
中國大陸漢譯本:拉夫·萊頓. Tuva Or Bust!: Richard Feynman's Last Journey [費曼的最後旅程]. 走近費曼叢書. 台灣新新聞編譯中心 (翻譯); 張中愛 (修訂) 1. 湖南科學技術出版社. 2005. ISBN 9787535742742(中文(中國大陸)).
Silvan S. Schweber. QED和創造它的人:戴森,費曼,施溫格,朝永振一郎. 普林斯頓物理學系列 (英語).
John Gribbin(英語:John Gribbin); Mary Gribbin. Richard Feynman: A Life in Science [迷人的科學風采——費恩曼傳]. 江向東 (譯者). 世紀出版集團, 上海科技教育出版社. 2005. ISBN 9787542859013(中文(中國大陸)).
Laurie M. Brown; John S. Rigden. Most of the Good Stuff: Memories of Richard Feynman [滿載美好:對理查德·費曼的回憶] (英語).
1987年,英國廣播公司《地平線》和PBS《新星》又製作了50分鐘的紀錄片《一個天才的最後旅程——探尋在唐努之濱的圖瓦》(Last Journey of a Genius -- The Quest for Tannu Tuva),費曼的好友兼同事拉爾夫頓也有參與其中。
英國廣播公司《地平線》和PBS《新星》製作了2集紀錄片《非凡天才》(No Ordinary Genius)。1993年,此片又被改為一個多小時的紀錄片《自愛因斯坦以來最好的頭腦》(The Best Mind Since Einstein)播出,時長1個小時。其中涉及關於費曼的生活和工作的兩方面的紀錄片,有採訪同事、朋友和家人。
「積分符號內取微分」的技巧常見於基礎數學分析教材有關「含參變元的積分」的章節中,可細分為「在積分限不變的積分符號內取微分」和「在積分限變動的積分符號內取微分」。這個技巧屬於萊布尼茲積分規則(Leibniz integral rule)。現在的數學教材一般採用純分析學方法(不畫圖)證明此技巧;但伍茲的書更強調幾何直觀,所以伍茲用的是半圖解的證明方法。這個技巧還可利用控制收斂定理(如勒貝格控制收斂定理)在積分限無界的黎曼積分和含瑕點的勒貝格積分中推廣;控制收斂定理本身也給出了一種在積分號下求極限(不是求導數)的方法。
Fay Dowker. Stephen Hawking at 70: still the brightest star in the scientific universe [70歲的史蒂芬·霍金:科學宇宙中依舊最耀眼的明星]. 2012年1月1日 [2018年4月18日]. (原始內容存檔於2021年4月21日) (英語). As an impressionable young student, it was a tremendous thrill to meet so many celebrities and renowned physicists. One of the great excitements of visiting Caltech, where Stephen was a Fairchild scholar in 1975, was meeting the brilliant physicist Richard Feynman, who was regarded almost like a god there. He used to visit our office quite often and, since Stephen's voice was already quite weak, I would act as interpreter.
Joseph Polchinski. Memories of a Theoretical Physicist [一位理論物理學者的回憶](pdf). arxiv. 2017年8月31日 [2018年4月28日](英語). With Caltech, the dominance of two charismatic professors, Feynman and Gell-Mann, had slowed the reaction to the discovery of asymptotic freedom and all that it implies.","In Feynman’s Nobel speech, he tells the story of poor Slotnick, whose just-finished Ph.D. dissertation Feynman had reproduced, and more, in a single night.","At the time we met, Feynman was a star, Thorne was a rising young star, and Zajc was, like me, a young whippersnapper setting his first steps on the Caltech campus.
J. J. O'Connor, E. F. Robertson. Ernst Carl Gerlach Stueckelberg [恩斯特·卡爾·格拉赫·斯蒂克爾堡]. 聖安德魯斯大學. 2008年7月 [2016年12月31日]. (原始內容存檔於2019年11月3日) (英語). A big advance in theoretical physics was the renormalization programme in quantum field theory. At the 1948 Solvay congress, Oppenheimer insisted on preserving covariance in all steps of the calculation if one wants to eliminate the infinities which otherwise occur. He then quoted Stueckelberg's 1934 paper as giving an example of such a covariant theory. This was not Stueckelberg's only contribution to the renormalization programme, however, for in the early 1940s he wrote a long paper outlining a complete and correct description of the renormalization procedure for quantum electrodynamics. He sent it to the Physical Review, but it was rejected.","He then set about filling in all the details but Schwinger and Feynman published their version first and Stueckelberg received no recognition for his remarkable contributions.","After receiving the Nobel Prize, Feynman lectured at CERN to an audience which included Stueckelberg. Jagdish Mehra writes: After the lecture, Stueckelberg was making his way out alone ... from the CERN ampitheatre, when Feynman - surrounded by admirers - made the remark: 'He [Stueckelberg] did the work and walks alone toward the sunset; and, here I [Feynman] am, covered in all the glory, which rightfully should be his!'
Physicist Paul Dirac Is 'The Strangest Man'. The Rakyat Post. 2009年10月4日 [2016年10月2日]. (原始內容存檔於2020年5月8日) (英語). Dr. FARMELO: 'I mean, as I said, people like, you know, Richard Feynman and - these have gone on the records saying he was their hero. He was the person they looked up to.'","Dr. FARMELO: 'Yeah. Well, I think the picture you're talking about is - was taken in Poland. And that was one of the times where Feynman tried to pin Dirac down, something he often wanted to do, because as I said earlier, Dirac was a hero to Feynman. Feynman was working on a theory in photons, electrons, building on Dirac's great work in the mid-1920s. But he found as he - Feynman often said to friends - extremely difficult to get anything out of Dirac. He was a person of such - he was so inward, so to speak...' FLATOW: 'Yeah.' Dr. FARMELO: '...so unwilling to open up that Feynman found it virtually hopeless.'
Koh Aik Khoon. Dirac vs Feynman: Two different physicists. 2014年11月11日 [2016年10月1日]. (原始內容存檔於2017年1月14日) (英語). Dirac asked Feynman point blank: 「I have an equation, do you have one, too?」
Institute for Advanced Study and the University of Rochester. Kenneth M. Case 1923–2006 [肯尼斯·M·凱斯 1923–2006](pdf). 美國國家科學院官方網站: 5. 2013年 [2018年4月28日]. (原始內容存檔(PDF)於2021年3月22日) (美國英語). ... however, because Murray Slotnick had described his Ph.D. thesis at the same meeting the day before Case was scheduled to speak. Slotnick had found finite results for the pseudo-scalar case, but infinite results for the pseudo-vector one. Oppenheimer was in the audience and challenged Slotnick's results as 「violating Case's theorem.」 (It is unknown why Case was not present.) Richard Feynman also was there, and he spent the whole night repeating Slotnick's calculations using some of the new methods he was in the process of developing. He proved that Slotnick was correct and challenged Case the next day, after Case's talk. Feynman, using his new methods, had repeated in one night a calculation that had taken Slotnick six months, and he had done it with more generality—Slotnick assumed zero momentum transfer, but Feynman did not. The penultimate paragraph of Case's corrected paper read: 「Thanks are due to Dr. R. P. Feynman for pointing out an error in the original manuscript.」
托尼·黑(英語:Tony Hey). Celebrating Richard Feynman at TEDxCaltech [在技術、娛樂、設計擴展版加州理工學院歌頌理查德·費曼]. 微軟研究院. 2011年2月4日 [2018年4月28日]. (原始內容存檔於2021年4月21日) (美國英語). My next story starts in 1948 at the Pocono Conference where all the great figures of physics—Niels Bohr, Paul Dirac, Robert Oppenheimer, Edward Teller, and so on—had assembled to try to understand how to make sense of the infinities in QED. Feynman and Schwinger were the star speakers, but Feynman was unable to make his audience understand how he did his calculations. His interpretation of positrons as negative energy electrons moving backwards in time was just too hard for them to accept. After the conference, Feynman was in despair and later said, 「My machines came from too far away.」","Less than a year later, Feynman had his triumph. At an American Physical Society meeting in New York, Murray Slotnick talked about some calculations he had done with two different meson-nucleon couplings. He had shown that these two couplings indeed gave different answers. After Slotnick's talk, Oppenheimer got up from the audience and said ... Feynman said, 「No problem, we can just set Q equal to zero in my formulas!」 Feynman found that he had obtained the same answer as Slotnick. After Case had presented his theorem, Feynman stood up at the back of the audience and said, 「Professor Case, I checked Slotnick's calculations last night and I agree with him, so your theorem must be wrong.」
斯蒂芬·沃爾夫勒姆. A Short Talk about Richard Feynman (2005). 沃爾夫勒姆研究公司. 2005 [2015-11-04]. (原始內容存檔於2021-04-21) (英語). Some scientists (myself probably included) are driven by the ambition to build grand intellectual edifices. I think Feynman—at least in the years I knew him—was much more driven by the pure pleasure of actually doing the science. He seemed to like best to spend his time figuring things out, and calculating... And often he'd come up with one of those classic Feynman straightforward-sounding explanations. And he'd never tell people about all the calculations behind it. Sometimes it was kind of a game for him: having people be flabbergasted by his seemingly instant physical intuition. Not knowing that really it was based on some long, hard calculation he'd done.
勞倫斯·克勞斯. Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science (Great Discoveries). amazon.com. [2016年10月1日]. (原始內容存檔於2021年4月21日) (英語). 「A lively and engrossing biography of a lively and engrossing man. Krauss recounts the life and ideas of one of the century's greatest scientist with a deep understanding of both the physics and the man, presented with great lucidity and charm.」 (Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works)","「Seamlessly entwining colorful episodes of physics' most 『curious character』 with wonderfully clear descriptions of Feynman's penetrating breakthroughs in quantum theory, Krauss's account is both entertaining and masterly. A great read.」 (Brian Greene, author of The Hidden Reality and The Elegant Universe)
Timothy Prickett Morgan. Microsoft hosts Feynman lecture series --Actual fun with physics. The Register. 2009年7月15日 [2015年11月4日]. (原始內容存檔於2020年4月11日) (英語). The BBC filmed the Cornell lectures, known as the Messenger Series, and Gates recently bought the rights to them with the intent of making them available free to the public, as a means of making science interesting. 'No one was more adept at making science fun and interesting than Richard Feynman,' Gates said in a statement announcing that the lectures are now available for free. 'More than 20 years after first seeing them, these are still some of the best science lectures I've heard. Feynman worked hard during his life to popularize science, so I'm sure he'd be thrilled that now anyone, anywhere in the world, can just click a button and experience his lectures.'
Celebrating Richard Feynman --Are you the next big thinker?. 微軟. [2015年11月4日]. (原始內容存檔於2016年5月6日) (英語). 'I think someone who can make science interesting is magical. And the person who did that better than anybody was Richard Feynman,' says Bill Gates, chairman, Microsoft Corporation. 'He took the mystery of science, the importance of science, the strangeness of science, and made it fun and interesting and approachable. And I think these Messenger Series lectures he gives are the best science lectures I’ve ever seen.' Through the technology of the Microsoft Research Project Tuva enhanced video player, you can view these historic lectures with searchable video, speaker transcripts, user notes, and interactive extras that provide related information.
Richard Feloni. Google cofounder Sergey Brin says these 2 books changed his life. businessinsider.com. 2015年7月21日 [2015年11月8日]. (原始內容存檔於2021年4月21日) (英語). ...Brin revealed some of the books that inspired him to dedicate his career to blending technology and creativity... 'Aside from making really big contributions in his own field, he was pretty broad-minded,' Brin told the Academy of Achievement. 'I remember he had an excerpt where he was explaining how he really wanted to be a Leonardo [da Vinci], an artist and a scientist. I found that pretty inspiring. I think that leads to having a fulfilling life.'
維塔利·金茲堡. Vitaly L. Ginzburg - Biographical. 諾貝爾獎官方網站. 2009年11月8日 [2016年10月1日]. (原始內容存檔於2018年8月11日) (英語). Put into class 1 were Bohr, Dirac, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, de Broglie, Feynman.","By the way, I am surprised that Landau put Feynman higher than himself and in general put him into the 1st class. There is no doubt that Feynman was a brilliant physicist and lecturer but it seems to me that his accomplishments cannot be compared with those of other "first-class" physicists. Probably, Landau especially valued the diagrammatic technique, thinking that he himself would not have been able to hit upon it.