Man earns PhD, fulfills dream of being physicist — at 89

An 89-year-old Rhode Island man has achieved a objective he spent 20 years working towards and practically a lifetime fascinated with — incomes his Ph.D. and turning into a physicist.
Manfred Steiner not too long ago defended his dissertation efficiently at Brown University in Providence. Steiner cherishes this diploma as a result of it’s what he all the time wished — and since he overcame well being issues that might have derailed his research.
“But I made it, and this was the most gratifying point in my life, to finish it,” he stated Wednesday at his house in East Providence.
As an adolescent in Vienna, Steiner was impressed to grow to be a physicist after studying about Albert Einstein and Max Planck. He admired the precision of physics.
Manfred Steiner, who earned his Ph.D. in physics from Brown University on the age of 89, talks about his thesis in his house workplace in East Providence, R.I., Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. (Photo: AP)
But after World War II, his mom and uncle suggested him that learning medication can be a better option in turbulent occasions. He earned his medical diploma from the University of Vienna in 1955 and moved to the United States only a few weeks later, the place he had a profitable profession learning blood and blood problems.
Steiner studied hematology at Tufts University and biochemistry on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology earlier than turning into a hematologist at Brown University. He grew to become a full professor and led the hematology part of the medical college at Brown from 1985 to 1994.
Manfred Steiner, who earned his Ph.D. in physics from Brown University on the age of 89, shows his doctorate thesis on his laptop computer at his house in East Providence, R.I., Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. (Photo:AP)
Steiner helped set up a analysis program in hematology on the University of North Carolina, which he directed till he retired from medication in 2000 and returned to Rhode Island.
Steiner and his spouse, Sheila, who’s 93, have been married since 1960. They have two kids and 6 grandchildren. He’ll rejoice his ninetieth birthday this month.

Steiner discovered medical analysis satisfying, but it surely wasn’t fairly the identical as his fascination with physics.
“It was something like a wish that was never fulfilled, that always stuck in the back of my head,” he stated. “I always thought, you know, once I’m finished with medicine, I really don’t want to spend my life just sitting around and maybe doing a little golfing or doing something like that. I wanted to keep active.”
Manfred Steiner, who earned his Ph.D. in physics from Brown University on the age of 89, is photographed in his house workplace in East Providence, R.I., Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. (Photo: AP)
At age 70, he began taking undergraduate courses at Brown, one of many Ivy League universities. He was planning to take a couple of programs that him, however by 2007, he amassed sufficient credit to enroll within the Ph.D. program.
Physics Professor Brad Marston was skeptical when Steiner entered his quantum mechanics class. Marston had taught graduate college students of their 40s, however by no means of their 70s. Then he realized how critical Steiner was in regards to the topic and the way arduous he labored.
Marston grew to become Steiner’s adviser for his dissertation.