My foremost personal hero is Richard Feynman: extravagant extraordinaire and reluctant Nobel prize winner. His skill at explaining his field (theoretical physics in general and quantum mechanics in particular) was so remarkable that the notes he prepared 44 years ago are still used by physics majors world wide. More impressively: after listening to his lectures even I briefly feel like I understand the subject :). He had the guts to stand up for what he believed was the right thing to do against advise by others: a quality that seems to be all too rare these days.
Here is a list of available online resources of Richard Feynman:
- The pleasure of finding things out: BBC documentary with interviews
- The Douglas Robb Memorial Lectures: Feynman explaining quantum physics for the lay man in four lectures preserved on video
- The excellent stories in Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman
- Other interesting stories:
