The Feline Physicist: A Brief Story of Professional Discord and Reconciliation

by Simon Currie

If you look up the Google Scholar page of FDC Willard, you will see that this scientist published two articles on nuclear physics in the mid 1970s to early 1980s (Google Scholar). You will also see that FDC Willard is a cat: FDC stands for “Felis domesticus Chester”.

Willard’s roommate Jack Hetherington, a physicist at Michigan State University, allegedly did much of their work on the publication “Two-, Three-, and Four-Atom Exchange Effects in bcc3 He” (Hetherington and Willard, 1975).

According to Hetherington, a colleague reviewed the initial draft with Hetherington as the sole author, and pointed out that all pronouns were in the plural form. Rather than retype the entire manuscript with singular pronouns, Hetherington added Willard as a coauthor.

Willard was understandably a bit peeved that his colleague and roommate publicly downplayed his contributions to their research.

In typical standoffish feline fashion, Willard left Hetherington off of his next project and published “Solid helium 3: a nuclear antiferromagnetic element” by himself (Willard, 1980). In French. With the correct pronouns.

Hetherington and Willard overcame their professional spat and remained amicable roommates throughout Willard’s 14 years until he passed away in 1982.

Repose en paix, Siamese physics scholar.

References

Google Scholar. Felis Domesticus Chester Willard. Accessed July 20, 2024. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xFmQpf4A...

Hetherington, J. H., Willard, F. D. C. (1975). Two-, Three-, and Four-Atom Exchange Effects in bcc ³He. Physical Review Letters 35 (21), 1442. https://journals.aps.org/prl/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevLe...

Los Alamos National Laboratory. F.D.C. Willard: How a feline physicist took on atomic science. April 3, 2023. Accessed July 20, 2024. https://discover.lanl.gov/publications/at-the-brad...

Wikipedia. F.D.C. Willard. Updated on May 11, 2024. Accessed July 20, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._D._C._Willard

Willard, F. D. C. (1980) Solid helium 3: a nuclear antiferromagnetic element. Recherche 11 (114).