Keith Allen Brueckner (March 19, 1924 – September 19, 2014) was an American theoretical physicist who made important contributions in several areas of physics, including many-body theory in condensed matter physics, and laser fusion.
In 1959, Brueckner was recruited by Roger Revelle to come to University of California, San Diego, where he became one of the founders of the Department of Physics.
Brueckner was instrumental in recruiting many faculty members to the new campus, as well as setting up the curriculum for the School of Science and Engineering.
[2] He and Murray Gell-Mann collaborated to show that the random phase approximation (RPA) can be derived using Feynman diagrams in 1957.
This was a seminal result, as it is often considered to be the first major accomplishment of modern quantum many-particle theory and has been an inspiration for the entire field.