Rate My Professor Walter Lewin

Walter Hendrik Gustav Lewin is a Dutch astrophysicist and retired professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He earned his doctorate in nuclear physics in 1965 from the Delft University of Technology. Lewin joined MIT in January 1966 as a postdoctoral associate and was appointed assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor in 1968 and to full professor in 1974. He remained on the MIT physics faculty for 43 years until his retirement in 2009.

Lewin specialized in astrophysics with a focus on X-ray astronomy. He conducted all-sky balloon surveys that led to the discovery of new X-ray sources and the first identification of a slowly rotating neutron star. As co-investigator on projects including SAS-3 and HEAO-1, he discovered multiple X-ray bursters and contributed to the classification of burst types. His research also included studies of quasi-periodic oscillations, kHz oscillations in X-ray binaries, and observations with observatories such as ROSAT, Chandra, RXTE, and others. Lewin has authored or co-authored approximately 450 scientific articles and edited volumes on X-ray binaries and related topics. He co-authored the book For the Love of Physics with Warren Goldstein, published in 2011. Lewin received numerous honors including the NASA Award for Exceptional Scientific Achievement in 1978, Alexander von Humboldt Awards in 1984 and 1991, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1984, and multiple MIT teaching awards such as the Science Council Prize in 1984, the W. Buechner Teaching Prize in 1988, and the Everett Moore Baker Memorial Award in 2003. He was named the first recipient of the Educator Award for OpenCourseWare Excellence in 2011. His physics lectures were widely disseminated through MIT OpenCourseWare and other platforms, reaching millions of viewers.