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Klaus Hepp

Swiss-German theoretical physicist and professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich (born 1936)

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ122764
Source-derived summary

Klaus Hepp (born 11 December 1936) is a German-born Swiss theoretical physicist working mainly in quantum field theory. Hepp studied mathematics and physics at Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität in Münster and at the Eidgenössischen Technischen Hochschule (ETH Zurich), where, in 1962, with Res Jost as thesis first advisor and Markus Fierz as thesis second advisor, he received a doctorate for the thesis ("Kovariante analytische Funktionen“) and at ETH in 1963 attained the rank of Privatdozent. From 1966 until his retirement in 2002 he was professor of theoretical physics there. From 1964 to 1966 he was at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Hepp was also Loeb Lecturer at Harvard University and was at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHÉS) near Paris.

Hepp worked on relativistic quantum field theory, quantum statistical mechanics, and theoretical laser physics. In quantum field theory he gave a complete proof of the Bogoliubov–Parasyuk renormalization theorem (Hepp and Wolfhart Zimmermann, called in their honor the BPHZ theorem). Since a research stay 1975/6 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) he also worked in neuroscience (for example, reciprocal effect between movement sensors, visual sense and eye movements with V. Henn in Zurich).

In 2004 he received the Max Planck Medal.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Klaus Hepp” as swiss-German theoretical physicist and professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich (born 1936). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1936, 1962, 1963, 1966—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1936-12-11. The account is most persuasive where Klaus, Hepp and Swiss-German can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as swiss-German theoretical physicist and professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich (born 1936). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q122764. VIAF identifies the subject as 59936435. The Library of Congress control number is n85803407. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1936, 1962, 1963 and 1966.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

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  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Klaus Hepp” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.