Jagdish Mehra (April 8, 1931 – September 14, 2008) was an Indian–American physicist and historian of science.

Mehra was educated atAllahabad University, theMax Planck Institut für Physik and theUniversity of California at Los Angeles and obtained a Ph.D. in theoretical physics at theUniversity of Neuchatel.^[1][2]

He subsequently taught atPurdue University,Southeastern Massachusetts University, theUniversity of Geneva, theSolvay Institute in Brussels,Rice University, theUniversity of Houston and theInternational Center for Theoretical Physics.

He is particularly well known for his 6 volume-bookThe Historical Development of Quantum Theory,^[3] which he wrote withHelmut Rechenberg. He also wrote a biography ofRichard Feynman,The Beat of a Different Drum: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman.

He also wrote a book on the controversy surrounding the exact roleDavid Hilbert played in the development of the gravitation theory ofAlbert Einstein.

• Mehra, J. (Ed.).The Physicist's Conception of Nature. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Reidel, 1973.doi:10.1007/978-94-010-2602-4
• Mehra, J. (Ed.).Proceedings of the Symposium on the Development of the Physicist's Conception of Nature in the Twentieth Century (Trieste, Italy; Sept. 18–25, 1972).
• Mehra, J.Einstein, Hilbert and the Theory of Gravitation. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Reidel, 1974.doi:10.1007/978-94-010-2194-4
• Mehra, J.The Solvay Conferences on Physics. Aspects of the Development of Physics since 1911. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Reidel, 1975.doi:10.1007/978-94-010-1867-8
• Mehra, J.The Beat of a Different Drum: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1994.ISBN 978-0198518877
• Mehra, J.Einstein, Physics and Reality. World Scientific, 1999.doi:10.1142/4135
• Mehra, J.The Quantum Principle: Its Interpretation and Epistemology.doi:10.1007/978-94-010-2234-7
• Mehra, J.The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics: Selected Essays. July 2000.doi:10.1142/4454
• Mehra, J. and Milton, K. A.Climbing the Mountain: The Scientific Biography of Julian Schwinger. 2000.ISBN 978-0198527459
• Mehra, J. and Rechenberg, H.The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, Vol. 1: The Quantum Theory of Planck, Einstein, Bohr and Sommerfeld. Its Foundation and the Rise of Its Difficulties (1900-1925). New York: Springer-Verlag, 1982.
• Mehra, J. and Rechenberg, H.The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, Vol. 2: The Discovery of Quantum Mechanics, 1925. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1982.
• Mehra, J. and Rechenberg, H.The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, Vol. 3: The Formulation of Matrix Mechanics and Its Modifications 1925-1926. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1982.
• Mehra, J. and Rechenberg, H.The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, Vol. 4: The Fundamental Equations of Quantum Mechanics 1925-1926. The Reception of the New Quantum Mechanics. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1982.
• Mehra, J. and Rechenberg, H.The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, Vol. 5: Erwin Schrödinger and the Rise of Wave Mechanics. Part 1: Schrödinger in Vienna and Zurich 1887-1925. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1987.
• Mehra, J. and Rechenberg, H.The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, Vol. 5: Erwin Schrödinger and the Rise of Wave Mechanics. Part 2: The creation of Wave Mechanics, Early Response and Applications 1925-1926. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1987.
• Mehra, J. and Rechenberg, H.The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, Vol. 6: The Completion of Quantum Mechanics, 1926-1941, Part 1: The probabilistic Interpretation and the Empirical and Mathematical Foundation of Quantum Mechanics, 1926-1936. New York: Springer-Verlag, 2000.
• Mehra, J. and Rechenberg, H.The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, Vol. 6: The Completion of Quantum Mechanics, 1926-1941, Part 2: The Conceptual Completion of Quantum Mechanics. New York: Springer-Verlag, 2001.
• Mehra, J. and Wightman, A. S. (Eds.).The Collected Works of Eugene Paul Wigner (1902-1995), 8 vols. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1990-2000.

• Brush, Stephen G. (January 1, 1977). "Reviewed work: The Solvay Conferences on Physics: Aspects of the Development of Physics since 1911, Jagdish Mehra".American Scientist.65 (1):93–94.ISSN 0003-0996.JSTOR 27847655.
• Cushing, James T. (June 1, 1996). "Reviewed work: The Beat of a Different Drum: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, Jagdish Mehra".Isis.87 (2):387–388.doi:10.1086/357555.ISSN 0021-1753.JSTOR 236135.
• Forman, Paul (September 1, 1975). "Reviewed work: The Physicist's Conception of Nature, Jagdish Mehra".Isis.66 (3):435–436.doi:10.1086/351508.ISSN 0021-1753.JSTOR 228876.
• Hendry, John (July 1, 1986). "Reviewed work: The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, Jagdish Mehra, Helmut Rechenberg; Constructing Quarks. A Sociological History of Particle Physics, Andrew Pickering".The British Journal for the History of Science.19 (2):206–208.doi:10.1017/S0007087400023001.ISSN 0007-0874.JSTOR 4026596.
• Hendry, John (September 1, 1988). "Reviewed work: The Historical Development of Quantum Theory. Volume 5. Erwin Schrödinger and the Rise of Wave Mechanics, Jagdish Mehra, Helmut Rechenberg".The British Journal for the History of Science.21 (3):371–372.doi:10.1017/S0007087400025139.ISSN 0007-0874.JSTOR 4026844.
• Kaiser, David (June 1, 2005). "Reviewed work: Climbing the Mountain: The Scientific Biography of Julian Schwinger, Jagdish Mehra, Kimball A. Milton".The British Journal for the History of Science.38 (2):239–240.doi:10.1017/s0007087405376965.ISSN 0007-0874.JSTOR 4028714.S2CID 145229344.
• McMullin, Ernan (September 1, 1978). "Reviewed work: The Solvay Conferences on Physics: Aspects of the Development of Physics since 1911, Jagdish Mehra".Isis.69 (3):476–477.doi:10.1086/352108.ISSN 0021-1753.JSTOR 231083.
• Voss, David F. (June 10, 1994). "Reviewed work: No Ordinary Genius. The Illustrated Richard Feynman., Christopher Sykes; the Beat of a Different Drum. The Life and Science of Richard Feynman., Jagdish Mehra".Science. New Series.264 (5165): 1617.doi:10.1126/science.264.5165.1617.ISSN 0036-8075.JSTOR 2883885.PMID 17769610.
• Wessels, Linda (June 1, 1991). "Reviewed work: The Historical Development of Quantum Theory. Volume V: Erwin Schrödinger and the Rise of Wave Mechanics, Jagdish Mehra, Helmut Rechenberg".Isis.82 (2):404–405.doi:10.1086/355814.ISSN 0021-1753.JSTOR 234908.
• Ziman, John (May 1, 1975). "Reviewed work: The Physicist's Conception of Nature, Jagdish Mehra".American Scientist.63 (3): 334.ISSN 0003-0996.JSTOR 27845471.
• Heilbron, J. L. (September 1, 1985). "Artes compilationis".Isis.76 (3):388–393.doi:10.1086/353892.ISSN 0021-1753.JSTOR 232871.S2CID 144541847.
• Taylor, John C. (January 1, 1997). "Feynman".Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London.51 (1):156–157.ISSN 0035-9149.JSTOR 532050.
• Brush, Stephen G. (September 1, 1995). "Feynman's Success: Demystifying Quantum Mechanics".American Scientist.83 (5):476–477.ISSN 0003-0996.JSTOR 29775527.
• Dyson, Freeman (September 27, 1974). "Honoring Dirac".Science. New Series.185 (4157):1160–1161.doi:10.1126/science.185.4157.1158.ISSN 0036-8075.JSTOR 1738373.

• American historians of science
• University of Allahabad alumni
• University of California, Los Angeles alumni
• University of Neuchâtel alumni
• Purdue University faculty
• Academic staff of the University of Geneva
• Rice University faculty
• University of Houston faculty
• 1931 births
• 2008 deaths
• Indian expatriates in Switzerland
• Indian emigrants to the United States

• Use mdy dates from October 2015
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles with hCards