# Fred Cummings

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Fred_Cummings
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Fred_Cummings.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Cummings
> Source revision: 1317425016
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

For the U.S. congressman from Colorado, see [Fred N. Cummings](/source/Fred_N._Cummings).

**Frederick Williams Cummings** (November 21, 1931 - January 31, 2019)[1] was an American [theoretical physicist](/source/Theoretical_physics) and professor at the [University of California, Riverside](/source/University_of_California,_Riverside). He specialised in [cavity quantum electrodynamics](/source/Cavity_quantum_electrodynamics), [many-body theory](/source/Many-body_theory), [non-linear dynamics](/source/Non-linear_dynamics), and [biophysics](/source/Biophysics). He developed the [Jaynes–Cummings model](/source/Jaynes%E2%80%93Cummings_model), one atom interacting with a quantized electromagnetic field; as well as the extension of this to *N* atoms, known as the [Tavis–Cummings model](/source/Tavis%E2%80%93Cummings_model).

## Life

Frederick Williams Cummings was born in [New Orleans](/source/New_Orleans), Louisiana in 1931. He served in the [United States Army](/source/United_States_Army) from 1950 to 1952, in the infantry in Korea.

He received his [Bachelor of Science](/source/Bachelor_of_Science) from Louisiana State University in 1955 and his [Ph.D.](/source/Doctor_of_Philosophy) from [Stanford University](/source/Stanford_University) in 1962.[citation needed] [Edwin Thompson Jaynes](/source/Edwin_Thompson_Jaynes) was his doctoral supervisor, with whom he worked on the [Jaynes–Cumming model](/source/Jaynes%E2%80%93Cummings_model).

While finishing his thesis, Cummings worked at the [Aeronutronic Research Labs](/source/Aeronutronic), Ford Motor Co. in Newport Beach, California from 1960 to 1963.

He became a professor at [University of California, Riverside](/source/University_of_California,_Riverside) (UCR). With his doctoral student Michael Tavis, he extended the Jaynes–Cummings model to the [Tavis–Cummings model](/source/Tavis%E2%80%93Cummings_model) in 1968.

The revival probabilities predicted by Jaynes–Cumming model were first experimentally demonstrated in 1987 by [Gerhard Rempe](/source/Gerhard_Rempe), [Herbert Walther](/source/Herbert_Walther), and Norbert Klein.[citation needed]

After thirty years at UCR Physics department, Cummings became [emeritus professor](/source/Emeritus_professor) in 1993. In the last twenty years his interest has turned to questions of [biophysics](/source/Biophysics) of [development](/source/Developmental_biology) and [evolution](/source/Evolution).[2][3]

Cummings died on January 31, 2019, in [Marin County, California](/source/Marin_County,_California).[1]

### Personal life

In 1964, he married Kathleen Sturgis. They had one child.[1]

## References

1. ["Frederick Cummings Obituary (1931 - 2019) - Marin, CA - the Press-Enterprise"](https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/pe/obituary.aspx?n=frederick-w-cummings&pid=191508393). *[Legacy.com](/source/Legacy.com)*

1. F. W. Cummings (2006). "On the origin of pattern and form in early Metazoans". *Int. J. Dev. Biol.*. **50** (2–3): 193–208. [doi:10.1387/ijdb.052058fc](https://doi.org/10.1387/ijdb.052058fc). [PMID 16479488](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16479488)

1. Cummings, F.W (2004). "Model of Morphogenesis". *Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and Its Applications*. **339** (3–4): 531–547. [arXiv:physics/0308030](https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0308030). [Bibcode:2004PhyA..339..531C](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004PhyA..339..531C). [doi:10.1016/j.physa.2004.04.047](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physa.2004.04.047). [S2CID 13529760](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:13529760)

## External links

- Cummings, Frederick W (2013-11-01). ["Reminiscing about thesis work with E T Jaynes at Stanford in the 1950s"](https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0953-4075/46/22/220202). *Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics*. **46** (22). [doi:10.1088/0953-4075/46/22/220202](https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-4075/46/22/220202). [ISSN 0953-4075](https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0953-4075)

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Fred Cummings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Cummings) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Cummings?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.