Most PhD theses are read by only a handful of people: the student, his or her examiners, and perhaps a few researchers working in the same field. However, some PhD theses are so ground-breaking that they have much greater appeal.
- Ludwig Wittgenstein: Logical-Philosophical Treatise (1921)
Ludwig Wittgenstein studied at the University of Cambridge. In 1921, he completed his thesis, which astounded his examiners with its quality. The thesis, which delves into some of the most perplexing questions of logic and philosophy, was later published as a book. Wittgenstein later became a professor of philosophy at the University of Cambridge, where he remained until the outbreak of World War II. After the war, during which he worked as a hospital porter in London, Wittgenstein worked on Philosophical Investigations, a book that was published after his death in 1951.
- Claude Shannon: A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits (1937)
The title might sound somewhat dry, but Claude Shannon’s 1937 thesis actually lays the foundations of the whole of digital technology. The thesis explains how Boolean Algebra, a mathematical system of logic, can be applied to electrical circuits. This principle underlies the whole of silicon-based computing, including the computer or mobile device that you are currently using to read this article. Not satisfied with laying the foundations for the technologies we rely on so much today, Shannon went on to do important research in genetics and later worked at Bell Labs. Colleagues described him as a keen juggler and unicyclist, as well as a talented mathematician.
- Richard Feynman: The Principle of Least Action in Quantum Mechanics (1942)
Richard Feynman is one of the best-loved characters in modern physics research. This charismatic physicist is the author of The Feynman Lectures, a three-volume introduction to all fundamental topics in physics, as well as several popular science books. Before authoring these well-known works, Feynmann published his PhD thesis in 1942. This thesis is the origin of the famous Feynmann diagrams that bear his name. These diagrams, which are used in particle physics research, show the possible interactions that can take place between subatomic particles, such as electrons, photons and gluons. By assigning a numerical value to each diagram and adding them up, physicists can work out how likely a particular interaction is to occur.
- John Nash: Non-Cooperative Games (1950)
Immortalized forever in the movie A Beautiful Mind, John Nash is one of the founding fathers of game theory. His PhD thesis is only 28 pages long, but it lays the foundations for the work that would win him the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994. The thesis focuses on non-cooperative games: situations in which two or more players make decisions independently of each other. Nash developed the Nash equilibrium, which gives the best course of action for each player in a non-cooperative game. More than 50 years after writing his thesis, John Nash still researches game theory and logic at the University of Princeton.
Jenny Wescott loves to read a good dissertation paper. An avid writer, she loves to share what she finds to help other writers improve their skills. You can read her illuminating articles on various websites and blogs today. For tips and information on writing research papers see Ivory Research.
