He made contributions to the understanding of the weak interaction and he and his students are credited with developing the so-called standard model of elementary particle physics.
He was a student of Enrico Fermi and John Alexander Simpson Jr. Treiman published articles on quantum mechanics, plasmas, gravity theory, condensed matter and the history of physics.
Treiman's parents, Abraham and Sarah, were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who emigrated to Chicago, where he was born on May 27, 1925.
[4] His doctoral thesis dealt with the physics of cosmic rays, and the work was done under the supervision of John Alexander Simpson.
[2][5] A feature of Treiman's work was his ability to devise simple, unambiguous experimental tests for theoretical predictions and phenomena.
In addition to his own work, Treiman was widely recognized as a teacher and mentor, supervising more than two dozen graduate students over three decades.
His Socratic teaching style enabled his students to gain valuable insights without having been spoon fed the results.