Nobel Laureate Kenneth G. Wilson, who helped revolutionize the field of physics, then went on to transform the way physics is taught, died June 15, 2013 at his home in Maine. He was 77 years old.

Wilson joined Ohio State University’s Department of Physics as the Hazel C. Youngberg Trustees Distinguished Professor in 1988, after serving as a member of Cornell University’s physics department since 1963.

In the early 1960s and 1970s, Wilson resolved some of the most fundamental problems in theoretical physics, creating powerful theoretical tools which are now employed in every area of physics.

Wilson also was among the first in his field to use computer simulations and modeling as research tools. He was regarded as a “supercomputing visionary” who championed the National Science Foundation’s establishment of academic supercomputing centers across the country. He directed Cornell’s supercomputing center before coming to Ohio State.

Wilson’s career was studded with accomplishment, and the resulting recognition and highest awards given to physicists on both the national and international stage. In 1980, he was a co-winner of Israel’s Wolf Prize in physics--prizes second only to the Nobel Prize. Other early honors and recognition include the A.C. Eringen Medal, Franklin Medal, Boltzmann Medal, and Dannie Heinemann Prize.

In 1982, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics—given for his work on critical phenomena including phase transitions. He developed renormalization group methods that solved these problems and many fundamental problems in relativistic quantum mechanics.

Caroline Whitacre, Ohio State University Vice President for Research, said, "Ken Wilson was well known for his work in theoretical physics, winning the Nobel Prize in 1982, at the age of 46. He was part of the generation of scientists who truly revolutionized physics in the 1970’s. He will not only be remembered for his Nobel Prize winning work on critical phenomena in connection with phase transitions, but also for his efforts to reform K-12 education. The impact of Ken Wilson's work in this area will be felt for decades to come.”

Wilson was drawn to Ohio State because its physics department had a demonstrated track record of efforts to improve the way physics is taught—and Wilson had become increasingly disturbed by the state of the nation’s educational system, particularly regarding the teaching of math and science. He had ideas about how to fix it that were far ahead of his time and believed Ohio State’s programs in science literacy, cognitive studies, and training and retraining of science teachers, would be the place to do it.

James J. Beatty, professor and chair, physics, said, “Ken Wilson came to Ohio State at a time when his passion had turned from theoretical physics and lattice gauge theory to research in science education and education reform. Ken provided both vision and visibility to issues surrounding reform in science and mathematics education in America. He was a leader in the national dialogue that has ultimately led to a renewed focus on STEM education in the state and the nation.”

With the support of Ohio State leadership, Wilson began to build an innovative program for improved teaching. This led to Project Discovery, an Ohio statewide Systemic Initiative to improve science and mathematics teaching in the public schools, jointly funded by the National Science Foundation and the state of Ohio. Wilson was its co-Principal Investigator from 1991-96 and organized a summer training program for teachers in those fields.

His foray into education benefitted from his collaboration with co-P.I. Jane Butler Kahle of Miami University, Nancy Eberhart of the Ohio Department of Education and Gary Walters of the Ohio Board of Regents, who reminded him that solving these problems would not be a simple matter. They made him realize that he needed to immerse himself in the history and literature of educational reform. He never assumed he had the right answer and never hesitated to contact leaders in the field of education who he thought had good ideas.

Wilson argued that we needed to rethink how we educate our young centered on the concept of active involvement. His “Physics by Inquiry” approach to teaching was based on the work of physicist Arnold Arons—an important influence on Wilson’s thinking—and Aron’s collaborator Lillian McDermott.

His thinking expanded in later years to include the work of Seymour Sarason on the context of productive learning and how it relates to both classroom implementaton and teacher preparation.

Wilson also was fascinated with the work of management consultant and self-described “social ecologist,” Peter Drucker, whose observations on the emergence of the information society with its necessity of lifelong learning was an important influence on Wilson’s thinking about education reform.

Some have commented that Wilson had an uncanny ability to be able to combine the ideas of someone like Drucker with ideas from the worlds of education research and economics.

“This was his forte in physics as well—making unusual combinations of ideas and developing new ways of looking at things,” his wife, Alison Brown said. “To me that was very much the essence of his approach to all his research in the various fields. It was pretty much his defining characteristic. “

"This was one of the first things I noticed about Ken," Wilson's long-time collaborator Constance Barsky said. "His ability to syntheszie was incredible. Over the years, we explored the relation of many fields to educational reform beginning with understanding how our acculturation in the sciences was so very different from educators.

"I was always challenged and never bored while working with Ken. We agreed that conversations could occur between 7:30 am and 9:30 pm. I could always tell when he had a brainstorm. The phone would ring exactly at 7:30 am."

While he continued an active research program, Wilson’s years at Ohio State marked a transition in his career trajectory and they are most remembered for his radical and visionary new efforts toward educational reforms. The core thinking of the programs that Wilson developed at Ohio State was echoed in a National Academy of Sciences report on improving the nation’s schools that mandated “inquiry-based investigations.”

“Ken concentrated on education research while at Ohio State. In part, he decided to come here because he could start a Physics Education Research group in the Department of Physics,” physics professor and colleague Robert Perry said. “And, this push to rethink our approach to how we deliver science education has had a profound influence on our department and how we teach.

“But he also spent over five years working on light-front quantum chromodynamics, collaborating with about a dozen faculty, postdocs and graduate students. He was my primary collaborator for much of my career at Ohio State—unbelievable good fortune.”

The vibrancy of his ongoing work to push the boundaries of his discipline were honored in 1993, with the Aneesure Rahman Prize from the American Physical Society, “for his pioneering efforts on behalf of the field of computational physics and for the invention of lattice gauge theory which established the framework for lattice field theory.”

During this time, he also wrote seminal papers for top journals in the field and gave research presentations at national and international conferences.

Wilson continued to make considerable investments of his time and energy to conduct additional research on educational reform and participate in initiatives that sought to shed new light on these issues. He published several papers and the book, with Bennett Daviss, Redesigning Education, published in 1994.

In 1998, he published the “Education Yesterday, Education Tomorrow” issue of Daedalus, the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Other publications in this area included: "From Social Construction to Questions for Research: The Promise of the Sociology of Science," and "Beyond Social Construction," both with C.K. Barsky, in The One Culture? A Conversation about Science, J.A. Labinger and H. Collins, Eds., University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London (2001); “Applied Research and Development: Support for Continuing Improvement in Education,” with C.K. Barsky, Daedalus, 127, 233 (1998); Redesigning Education, with Bennett Daviss, Henry Holt, Inc. (1994).

Up to the day he died, Wilson continued to work with Constance Barsky on issues in educational reform, articulating connections between the many areas they explored. She said, "Our question was always: 'How can we tap into the natural love of learning exhibited by young children and change the education system in such a way as to sustain that love of learning throughout life?'"

Wilson served on the Board of Directors of the National Education Association National Foundation for the Improvement of Education from 1997 to 2003; the Board of Governors of the Weizmann Institute of Science from 1995 to 2000; and was a sponsor of the Daedalus Writers Confernce at Ohio State in 1996 and 1998. "Co-editing Daedalus journal 127 was our first attempt to get folks to realize that education reform required the expertise of numerous disciplines," Barsky said.

He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences; and elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the American Physical Society, and the American Philosophical Society.

Wilson did his undergraduate work at Harvard, where he was a Putnam Fellow, and received his PhD from Caltech in 1961.

He retired from Ohio State in December, 2008. He is survived by his wife, Alison Brown.