Alwyn Van der Merwe

Who is Alwyn Van der Merwe?

Alwyn van der Merwe is an American theoretical physicist. He is Emeritus Professor of Physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Denver.

Van der Merwe was awarded a Queen Victoria Scholarship in South Africa. He studied theoretical physics at the University of Amsterdam under Jan de Boer and S.A. Wouthuysen and obtained doctorates from the University of Amsterdam and the University of Bern. He was a research associate of Henry Margenau at Yale University and of Hans Jensen at the University of Heidelberg. Prior to his appointment at the University of Denver, he taught at the City University of New York.

He has acted extensively as editor in theoretical physics and the philosophy of science. In 1988 van der Merwe became the founding editor of the journal Foundations of Physics Letters, until its incorporation in 2007 into its sister journal Foundations of Physics, of which he succeeded Margenau as co-editor in 1975.