Lawrence Christian Biedenharn, Jr. (18 November 1922, Vicksburg, Mississippi – 12 February 1996, Austin, Texas) was an American theoretical nuclear physicist and mathematical physicist, a leading expert on applications of Lie group theory to physics.
[1][2] Biedenharn studied at MIT with an interruption in World War II from 1942 to 1946 as a lieutenant in the Signal Corps in the Pacific theater, where in 1946 he was stationed in Tokyo for a year as a radio officer.
After World War II, he returned to MIT where he received his PhD in physics under Victor Weisskopf in 1950.
He remained active in teaching and research as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas, Austin.
Biedenharn is known for his contributions to the quantum theory of angular momentum, especially the theory of nuclear reactions and Coulomb excitations (excitations of atoms by the scattering of charged particles and the Coulomb interaction with the nucleus).