Steven Weinberg: Remembering a Texas Giant

Until his death this summer at age 88, Steven Weinberg was widely regarded as the greatest living physicist. The dust had hardly settled on his Nobel prize for unifying electromagnetism and the weak interaction when he moved to Texas, where he continued to make history, working ceaselessly for the next 40 years. More than a living legend amongst physicists, alone, he became one of the preeminent intellectuals of his age on a broader stage, as well. In a state famous for its myths and legends, Weinberg’s is the rare example that justifies the phrase, “and some of them are actually true.” This talk will be one of three at this meeting devoted to Weinberg. Whole meetings devoted to each of the fields he changed would be necessary to begin to do justice to his life and work. I will make a much humbler attempt here to honor him by sharing some personal recollections of him as my colleague, teacher, collaborator, inspiration, and friend, with a particular focus on cosmology, a subject of our mutual interest.