[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6538-6540]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1545
                         JOHN ARCHIBALD WHEELER

  Mr. BAIRD. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the 
resolution (H. Res. 1118) honoring the life and achievements of John 
Archibald Wheeler and expressing condolences on his passing.
  The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
  The text of the resolution is as follows:

                              H. Res. 1118

       Whereas John Archibald Wheeler was born July 9, 1911, in 
     Jacksonville, Florida;
       Whereas John Wheeler graduated from high school at age 15 
     and earned a Ph.D. in physics from Johns Hopkins University 
     at age 21;
       Whereas Dr. Wheeler then moved to Copenhagen to work in the 
     field of nuclear physics with pioneering physicist Niels 
     Bohr;
       Whereas, while still in his 20s, Dr. Wheeler, then a 
     Professor of Physics at Princeton, along with Dr. Bohr in 
     1939 worked out the first explanation of how the newly 
     discovered nuclear fission actually worked;
       Whereas Dr. Wheeler spent the war years at Hanford, 
     Washington working on the theoretical understanding of 
     nuclear reactions that led to production of plutonium for the 
     bomb dropped on Nagasaki and later worked on the development 
     of the American hydrogen bomb under Project Matterhorn B;
       Whereas Dr. Wheeler then returned to Princeton where, after 
     discussion with Albert Einstein, he switched from the study 
     of nuclear physics to working on extending the theory of 
     general relativity, including in 1957 creating the concept of 
     wormholes to describe tunnels in space-time and in 1967 
     coining the term black hole as part of the theory of 
     gravitational collapse;
       Whereas Dr. Wheeler was a visionary who could see farther 
     on the horizon than most people by way of his physical 
     intuition;
       Whereas Dr. Wheeler was a beloved academic who trained some 
     of the best minds in the next generation of physicists, a 
     gifted communicator sometimes called a physics poet, and an 
     active researcher for over 70 years; and
       Whereas Dr. Wheeler was, in the words of Dr. Max Texmark, 
     the last Titan, the only physics superhero still standing 
     until the time of his death on April 13, 2008: Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
       (1) honors the life and accomplishments of Professor John 
     Archibald Wheeler and expresses condolences on his passing; 
     and
       (2) recognizes the profound importance of Dr. Wheeler's 
     record as a pioneer in nuclear and theoretical physics and a 
     long-time contributor to advancing mankind's understanding of 
     the nature and workings of the universe.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Washington (Mr. Baird) and the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Lucas) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Washington.


                             General Leave

  Mr. BAIRD. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and 
to

[[Page 6539]]

include extraneous material on H. Res. 1118, the resolution now under 
consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Washington?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BAIRD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I rise today to pay tribute to a great American scientist, Dr. John 
Archibald Wheeler. Dr. Wheeler passed away recently at the age of 96. 
He was a pioneer in the fields of nuclear and theoretical physics. 
Along with Niels Bohr, Dr. Wheeler worked out the first explanation of 
how nuclear fission actually worked. During the war years, Dr. Wheeler 
went to work on the Manhattan Project, helping to understand the 
theoretical basis for plutonium production. After the war, Dr. Wheeler 
continued his work for the country by helping to develop the American 
hydrogen bomb.
  After returning to academia, Dr. Wheeler continued his contributions 
to the field of physics. In 1957, Dr. Wheeler created the concept of 
wormholes to describe tunnels in space-time, and in 1967 he coined the 
term ``black hole,'' not to describe Congress, but as part of the 
theory of gravitational collapse.
  John Wheeler also contributed greatly to the scientific community 
with his devotion to teaching and training the next generation of 
scientists. He was a devoted teacher and textbook author, and served as 
a professor for over 70 years. Some of his graduate students included 
Richard Feynman, Kip Thorne, and Hugh Everett, all renowned physicists 
in their own right.
  Mr. Speaker, last week we lost one of the truly great scientific 
minds of the 20th century. I urge my colleagues to support this 
resolution honoring John Wheeler's achievements and expressing our 
profound condolences on his passing.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of House Resolution 1118, 
honoring the life and achievements of John Archibald Wheeler and 
expressing condolences on his passing. Dr. John Archibald Wheeler, who 
was one of America's greatest physicists, passed away this last week at 
the age of 96. Dr. Wheeler's wife of over 70 years passed away in 2007; 
and he is survived by three children, eight grandchildren, 16 great-
grandchildren, six step grandchildren, and 11 step great-grandchildren. 
What a fruitful life.
  Dr. Wheeler was a man who was decades ahead of his time. He not only 
played a key role in the development of the theory of nuclear fission 
with Niels Bohr, but also became the first scientist to give black 
holes and wormholes a name.
  Dr. Wheeler is described as a visionary physicist and teacher. His 
work on the Manhattan Project in 1941 helped build the atomic bomb. 
Always seeking answers to the larger questions of the universe, he 
would spend his time debating the meaning of the quantum theory and the 
nature of reality with Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr.
  John Archibald Wheeler was born on July 9, 1911, in Jacksonville, 
Florida. Dr. Wheeler earned his Ph.D. in physics from Johns Hopkins 
University at the old age of 21 years.
  Dr. Wheeler accomplished many things during his lifetime. Perhaps his 
greatest accomplishment was his ability to inspire generations of 
physicists and scientists through his teachings at Princeton and at the 
University of Texas, and his constant ambition to answer the greatest 
questions of the universe.
  In 1981, Dr. Wheeler wrote: ``We are no longer satisfied with 
insights only into particles, or fields of force, or geometry, or even 
space and time; today we demand of physics some understanding of 
existence itself.'' Think about that. It is for this constant quest for 
knowledge that inspired his life and will continue to inspire the 
American scientific community. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to 
support House Resolution 1118.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. BAIRD. Mr. Speaker, at this moment it is a real pleasure to yield 
time to one of our distinguished new Members. We sometimes say in this 
body that it doesn't take a rocket scientist to do something. In this 
case, we actually do have a physicist, Dr. Foster, the gentleman from 
Illinois, and the author of this outstanding legislation. I yield to 
him such time as he may consume.
  Mr. FOSTER. Mr. Speaker, earlier this month the United States lost a 
colossus within the science community, a visionary who advanced our 
understanding of the universe while inspiring generations of younger 
scientists. John Archibald Wheeler is perhaps best known to the public 
for coining the term ``black hole,'' but throughout his career he also 
worked alongside the likes of Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr on 
theoretical physics' most puzzling questions, helped develop the 
hydrogen bomb, and, upon his death on April 13, was appropriately 
called: The last Titan, the only physics superhero still standing.
  For 22 years, I was a particle physicist at Fermi National 
Laboratory, working with my colleagues on giant experiments to move 
beyond the horizons of current scientific understanding. As a graduate 
student at Harvard and as an undergraduate before that, I could not 
escape the mention of John Wheeler's name engraved on the promontories 
or floating on the delicate backwaters of what is now called modern 
physics.
  As a member of the tribe of experimental physicists, that is, people 
like me who did real experiments in the real world, we were always 
surrounded by a wondrous shimmering cloud of theoretical physicists. 
These are men and women who spend their days bobbing and weaving 
through the world of what might be mathematically possible, of what 
might show up in experiments that have yet to be invented, or what 
might have shown up if we had just done the last experiment just a 
little more carefully. John Wheeler was one of the most luminous 
droplets in that shimmering cloud.
  As young scientists, we studied the legacy of those great minds, 
physicists like Einstein, Bohr, Enrico Fermi, and John Archibald 
Wheeler. To a fellow physicist, the breadth of John Wheeler's 
achievements are staggering. Born in Jacksonville, Florida on July 9, 
1911, he graduated from high school at 15, and earned his Ph.D. from 
Johns Hopkins University at the age of 21. He sailed to Copenhagen a 
year later to begin work with the eminent physicist Niels Bohr, and in 
1939 the pair produced the first description of how nuclear fission 
works. During the Second World War, Dr. Wheeler joined with scientists 
working on the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. He continued 
to work with the U.S. government well after the war, and was awarded 
the Enrico Fermi Award by President Johnson in 1968.
  By the time he returned to academic life, Dr. Wheeler had become 
fascinated with Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. Studying 
gravitational collapse, he introduced not only the term black hole, but 
also the concept of the wormhole, a hypothetical tunnel in space-time. 
Dr. Wheeler was willing to passionately consider seemingly 
incomprehensible phenomena. In 1999, he wrote that the black hole 
``teaches us that space can be crumpled like a piece of paper into an 
infinitesimal dot, that time can be extinguished like a blown-out 
flame, and that the laws of physics that we regard as sacred, as 
immutable, are anything but.'' His work in the 1960s revived and 
transformed this field.
  In the last years of his career, Dr. Wheeler considered the 
mysterious and sometimes bizarre world of quantum mechanics, seeking 
connections between science and philosophy to explain fundamental 
questions of existence.
  Despite these high achievements, Dr. Wheeler remained committed to 
the nurturing of the next generation of scientists. He continued to 
teach introductory classes to undergraduates throughout his career, and 
he mentored some of the century's most noted theoretical physicists. 
Any physicist with the amount and color of the hair that I possess will 
also have indelible memories of ``MTW,'' the big black book called 
Gravitation authored by Misner, Thorne, and John Archibald

[[Page 6540]]

Wheeler that describes in intuitive terms what is really going on in 
Einstein's general theory of relativity.
  So at a time when the primacy of our Nation's science programs are in 
peril, John Wheeler's example should remind us of our own commitment to 
the next generation of American scientists and innovators.
  Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to introduce this resolution, and I urge 
my colleagues to join me in honoring the life and achievements of John 
Wheeler. The power of his intellectual accomplishments and the 
memorable color of his phrases will grace physics textbooks forever.
  Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. BAIRD. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Dr. Foster for introducing 
this resolution, and for his eloquent description of an individual to 
whom we owe such a great debt in this country.
  A recent survey asked citizens of the United States if they could 
name a single living United States scientist, and, sadly, many, many 
weren't. In this body it is not at all uncommon for us to bring up 
suspension bills honoring sports teams who may have won an NCAA 
championship or the Super Bowl or something like that. It is thoroughly 
appropriate that we do more to recognize outstanding scientists who did 
not just win a single sporting event, but changed the face of the Earth 
through their intellect, through their diligence, and through their 
discoveries. And I very much commend Dr. Foster for raising this, and I 
thank him. And, I hope it is not the last that he will enlighten us 
with his knowledge as a physicist. I know it won't be. But I would urge 
this body to see what we could do more through our actions here on the 
House Floor and in our districts to do more to honor and elevate the 
status of U.S. scientists so that we could provide role models for 
young people and rise above the gathering storm.
  Our science committee, chaired by Bart Gordon, has helped lead the 
effort in that. We are proud to have passed The America COMPETES Act. 
The America COMPETES Act is designed to produce many, many more John 
Wheelers. I want to express our thanks on behalf of the Congress to his 
family and our condolences for their loss.
  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, on April 13, 2008, America lost one of its 
greatest scientific minds. Dr. John Archibald Wheeler influenced 
generations of scientists (including me) and his imprint on the field 
of physics and our collective understanding of the universe we inhabit 
cannot be overstated.
  Wheeler began his career in the company of men whose names are well 
known to history--Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein. Wheeler, who earned 
his Ph.D. in physics at age 21, went to Denmark a year after earning 
his degree to study under Bohr, who at the time was on the cutting edge 
of nuclear research. It was only after Bohr fled Denmark in 1939--just 
months before the Nazi occupation of the country--that Wheeler learned 
of the research Bohr and others had been conducting into the 
possibilities and ramifications of nuclear fission.
  Ultimately, Wheeler would join Robert Oppenheimer and others on the 
Manhattan Project, turning America into the world's first nuclear 
power. Later, Wheeler would play a key role the development of 
thermonuclear weapons and become an advocate of the war in Vietnam and 
of the creation of a ballistic missile defense system for the United 
States. But for all his work on weapons of war, his passion was trying 
to understand the workings of the universe.
  We owe the term ``black hole'' to Wheeler, who initially resisted the 
idea of the existence of these stellar phenomena but was ultimately 
persuaded of their existence by the mathematical work of Dr. David 
Finklestein and others. In this, Wheeler demonstrated the traits of the 
best scientists: a willingness to challenge, and ultimately change, his 
views based on the facts and evidence.
  When he reached Princeton University's mandatory retirement age in 
1976, Wheeler was not ready to walk away from the profession he loved. 
He moved to Texas, taking up residence at the University of Texas at 
Austin and continued his investigation into the workings of the 
universe, seeking to understand ``how everything fits together.'' He 
continued to teach, lecture, and write for many more years, and his 
influence on at least two generations of physicists will be felt for 
generations to come.
  Dr. Wheeler's wife of 72 years, the late Janette Hegner Wheeler, 
passed away in October 2007 at age 99. The Wheelers are survived by 
their three children, Ms. Lahnston and Letitia Wheeler Ufford, both of 
Princeton; James English Wheeler of Ardmore, Pa.; 8 grandchildren, 16 
great-grandchildren, 6 step-grandchildren and 11 step-great 
grandchildren.
  I am pleased to join my colleagues in honoring John Wheeler through 
H. Res. 1118. We can honor him best by recommitting ourselves to making 
America the world leader in scientific research and achievements, and I 
will certainly do all I can to make that another of Dr. Wheeler's 
lasting achievements.
  Mr. BAIRD. I yield back the balance of my time and urge a ``yes'' 
vote on this outstanding resolution.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Baird) that the House suspend the rules 
and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 1118.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the resolution was agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________