Kenneth Geddes Wilson (born 1936) won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1982 for his work applying renormalization group analysis to previously unsolved problem in theoretical physics concerning critical points and phase transitions. Affiliated with Cornell University for a number of years, Wilson was also involved with getting government support for supercomputers on campuses. He later was a physics professor at Ohio State University, again doing research in physics and becoming involved in education reform.

Wilson was born on June 8, 1936, in Waltham, Massachusetts. He was the first of six children born to Edgar Bright Wilson, Jr., and his wife Emily Fisher (nee Buckingham). Wilson was born into an academic family. His father was a professor of chemistry at Harvard University and an expert on microwave spectroscopy. His maternal grandfather had taught mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Wilson's mother had done some graduate work in physics. All five...