Brown Physics Student Manfred Steiner Earns Ph.D. at Age 89

At 89-years-old Manfred Steiner is finally what he always wanted to be: a physicist. On September 15, 2021, Steiner successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation, “Corrections to the Geometrical Interpretation of Bosonization” in Brown University’s Department of Physics with Professor Brad Marston serving as his adviser and Professors James Valles and Antal Jevicki serving as readers. “It’s an old dream that starts in my childhood,” says Steiner, “I always wanted to become a physicist.”

To say that Steiner’s path to a Ph.D. in physics was not a traditional one would be an understatement. As a young man, Steiner fled the chaos of his birthplace of Vienna as World War II ended and eventually made his way to the United States. Steiner says, “I knew physics was my true passion by the time I graduated high school. But after the war, my uncle and my mother advised me to take up medicine because it would be a better choice in these turbulent after-war years.” 

Although he excelled at and loved physics, Steiner followed his family’s advice. He says, “my uncle was a physician, an ear, nose and throat specialist, and he had taught in the United States for a while. He taught plastic surgery — showing people how to make noses smaller or how to straighten them out. My family’s advice was that medicine was the best path for me. So I reconciled myself, ‘they are older and wiser,’ and I followed their advice.”

Steiner went on to earn a medical doctorate in 1955 from the University of Vienna and soon after his graduation he made his way to Washington, D.C. where he finished his initial training in internal medicine. He next began a traineeship in hematology at Tufts University under Dr. William Damashek, who the American Society of Hematology describes as “the preeminent American clinical hematologist of his time.” The traineeship included a three-year training in biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and he earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry there in 1967. 

Steiner moved to Rhode Island when he was offered a position as a hematologist in the newly established Program in Medicine at Brown University (now the Warren Alpert Medical School).  In 1968 he was appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine working primarily in research and was made full Professor of Medicine in 1978. In 1985 Steiner was appointed head of the hematology section of the medical school, a position he held until 1994.

When approaching retirement, an associate of his was made chief of hematology at the University of North Carolina, Greenville and he asked Steiner to join him to establish a research program in hematology which he directed until 2000 when he retired from medicine and returned to Rhode Island.

But Steiner’s passion for physics never left him. He says, “Even when I was in medical school I went at times to lectures by a renowned physicist Walter Thirring. His lectures always fascinated me. I was captivated by quantum physics and wished I could go into more detail in this.”

Unfortunately, at that time Steiner was unable to delve into the mysteries of quantum physics the way he would have liked, “you cannot do medicine halfway” he says, “you really have to dedicate your life to it.”

But throughout a long career in medicine, Steiner says he never stopped thinking about physics, “physics was always a part of me,” he says, “and when I retired from medicine and I was approaching age 70, I decided to enter the world of physics.” Steiner started taking physics classes at MIT, but soon found the demands of commuting to Boston overwhelming so he decided to transfer to the program in physics at Brown University where he had spent a good part of his academic life.

Steiner enrolled at Brown as a special student in 2000 and began taking undergraduate courses. He found Brown Physics a welcoming environment for a late-in-life learner. Steiner says, “I introduced myself to the teachers and told them ‘I am an older student’ and they said they were delighted to have me in class.” Though many years his junior, Steiner says his fellow students liked him and treated him well.

Steiner did not consciously set out to earn a third doctoral degree when he began his studies at Brown. “Originally I just wanted to take classes, doing something that helped my mind and was interesting to me.” But by the Spring of 2007 Steiner had completed enough classes to be admitted to the graduate school as a Ph.D. degree candidate in Physics. “It took a long time because I only took one or two classes every semester,” says Steiner, “but eventually, I had completed all requirements to enter graduate school.” Steiner says he had some “serious medical issues” that delayed his progress.

After admission to the Ph.D. program, Steiner continued his coursework at the graduate level and set out to look for a dissertation adviser. Initially, Steiner considered nuclear physics, but thought it might take him away from his family, so he approached Brad Marston who is a condensed matter theorist who also works on climate science. Marston says he did not work on nuclear theory, “so I gave Manfred a project that was the closest to high energy physics that I did, which was bosonization.” Marston recalls initially being skeptical when approached by a septuagenarian student about serving as a dissertation advisor, “to be honest, I was skeptical because people do not usually do physics, especially theoretical physics, at an advanced age. But in a moment of weakness, I agreed and said ‘yes.’ I knew his story, and I was very sympathetic to his desire to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a physicist.” Steiner commenced working on his dissertation with Marston advising, throughout the process, Steiner says he made many new friends, “especially the faculty that served on his dissertation committee. “I highly respect my committee,” he says.

Steiner set to work on a very difficult problem. Marston explains, “the universe is divided into two types of particles: fermions and bosons.”

Particles have an angular momentum, or “spin.” Particles with half-integer spins are fermions and particles with whole integer spins are bosons.

While this might seem like a small difference, it has enormous consequences. Marston continues, “electrons are fermions and photons are bosons. But there are certain circumstances under which you can characterize a fermion as a boson, that is what is known as bosonization, and there are certain advantages to doing that.”  “Usually,” Marston says, “people do this for one-dimensional problems, but for years I had been working with people like the late Tony Houghton trying to extend this to higher dimensions, such as two dimensional or three-dimensional metals.”  Marston says, “we had some success with this, but also discovered some limitations, so I gave Manfred the job of trying to move beyond those limitations.

That was a challenging project. I did not give Manfred an easy project.” Marston and Steiner are currently working together to publish some of the results of his dissertation. 

Valles says he considers Steiner an inspirational figure, “I remember meeting Manfred in the hallway when he was taking undergraduate classes. He was unabashed about wanting to do physics and having wanted to do it all his life. His excitement about physics as someone who had such a stellar career in another field felt really affirming.” Valles characterizes working with Steiner as “really pleasurable,” and adds, “the theory that he was doing involves techniques that are incredibly advanced and challenging to master.” Of his dissertation, Valles says Steiner, “did an amazing job describing the march of physics in the context of bosonization. He believes in the human mind’s capacity to advance and create knowledge. Seeing him do it was incredibly inspiring, enabling, and empowering to me as a physicist.”

Having successfully defended his thesis and completed all requirements for a Ph.D. in physics, Steiner is ecstatic, “it feels really good,” he says, “I am really on top of the world.” Despite his other accomplishments, Steiner says, “this Ph.D. is the one that I most cherish because it’s the one that I was striving for my whole life.”

But even with two Ph.D.’s, an M.D. and a distinguished career in medicine behind him, Steiner is not prepared to rest on his laurels. He is currently reworking part of his dissertation for publication and plans to continue his theoretical physics work. “Even though I am old, I would like to continue with physics. And even after writing and publishing this paper, I want to continue my research.”  Keeping going is consistent with Steiner’s approach to life, and he believes he still has more to offer. Steiner says, “I always tried to keep my brain sharp. Physics certainly helped me do that.”

Steiner admits he sometimes wonders how his life might have gone differently if he had not heeded his mother and uncle’s advice as a young man, “I do sometimes wonder how things might have gone differently,” he says. “I do not really regret it now. It was a good life and I made many great friends. It felt very good, particularly after I got my Ph.D. and worked in academic medicine. But physics always lurked in the background.”

When asked what those approaching retirement age should do Steiner says, “it is up to them. I could not imagine spending my life playing golf all the time. I wanted to do something that keeps my mind active. But it is a matter of whatever you want to do. If you have a dream, follow it.

Sometimes that dream may never have been verbalized, it may be buried in the subconscious.  It is important not to waste your older days. There is a lot of brainpower in older people and I think it can be of enormous benefit to younger generations. Older people have experience and many times history repeats itself.” As for young people choosing between following a passion and taking a more conventional path in life Steiner says, “I think young people should follow their dreams whatever they are, they will always regret it if they do not follow their dreams.”

By Pete Bilderback

Source