Sidney Drell
American physicist (1926–2016)
Sidney David Drell (September 13, 1926 – December 21, 2016) was an American theoretical physicist and arms control expert.
At the time of his death, he was professor emeritus at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Drell was a noted contributor in the fields of quantum electrodynamics and high-energy particle physics. The Drell–Yan process, which was used to discover the Higgs boson, is partially named for him.
Biography
Drell's parents immigrated to America from Ukraine early in the twentieth century and both went on to obtain college degrees. Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 13, 1926, Drell graduated from Atlantic City High School in 1943, at the age of sixteen.
Drell entered Princeton for the summer term in July 1943, and worked with Josef-Maria Jauch in his junior year and completing his senior thesis "Radiating Electrons" with John Archibald Wheeler. He earned his undergraduate degree in physics from Princeton University in 1946. He was awarded a masters in physics in 1947 and received his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1949. He co-authored the textbooks Relativistic Quantum Mechanics and Relativistic Quantum Fields with James Bjorken.
The public source identifies “Sidney Drell” as american physicist (1926–2016). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Sidney, Drell and American.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Sidney Drell”, the useful work is to connect “american physicist (1926–2016)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q779433. VIAF identifies the subject as 94659713. The Library of Congress control number is n82220983. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1926, 2016, 1943 and 1946.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. 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
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Sidney Drell”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Sidney Drell primary sources, Sidney Drell archive and Sidney research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Sidney Drell”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Sidney Drell” 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.