Some say that learning is done for the rest of your life. It is also proven that there is a physics student can get a PhD at the age of 89 years. He is Dr. Manfred Steiner.
Steiner confessed that this was a dream he had wanted since childhood. He finally made it happen by taking lectures at Brown University.
"I always wanted to be a physicist. I knew physics was my true passion by the time I graduated high school. But after the war, my uncle and mother advised me to take medicine because it would be a better choice in the years after the war. this turbulence," said Steiner.
Dr Steiner, who was born in Vienna, did have a long career in medicine where he earned his MD and PhD degrees. Throughout his medical career, his passion for physics never waned and when he retired in 2000, Steiner began attending lectures first at MIT and then at Brown University.
In 2007 he had completed all the requirements for graduate school entry and he was subsequently accepted into the PhD program. Seeking a dissertation advisor, he approached expert Brad Marston who turned out to be a little hesitant at first with Dr Steiner.
"To be honest, I was skeptical because people don't usually do physics, especially theoretical physics, at an advanced age," Marston said.
"But at one point, I agreed and said 'yes.' I know his story, and I sympathize deeply with his desire to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a physicist." But Marston didn't give Steiner any special treatment. He asked Steiner to finally tackle the complex problem of Bosonization.
Steiner and Marston are now working on publishing part of their dissertation findings and Steiner will soon go from being one of the oldest PhDs in physics to being one of the oldest physicists to have published findings.
"I'm literally on top of the world. The PhD is one that I value the most because that's what I've been fighting for my whole life," said Steiner passionately.
