LARS ONSAGER - The National Academies Press

212 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
This sketch of Lars Onsager, made by the late Otto R. Frisch,
F.R.S., is reproduced by permission of the Biographical Memoirs of
Fellows of the Royal Society, London.
Feynman was quick to recognize, behind Onsager's habit of
talking in riddles, a kindly and generous man. Later they met
on several occasions at scientific gatherings.
"On one occasion when we were standing together, a young man came
up to explain his ideas on superconductivity to us both. I didn't understand
what the fellow was saying—so I thought it must be nonsense (a bad habit
I have). I was surprised to hear Onsager say: 'Yes, that seems to be the
solution to the problem.' Did he mean the puzzle of superconductivity was
solved—and I didn't even know what the young man said? I guess so."
Feynman thinks the young man may well have been Leon
Cooper, but Cooper is unable to recall the incident.
YALE—THE LATER YEARS (1949-1972)
To outward appearances, the year 1949 was Onsager's annus
mirabilis. It saw the publication, not only of his third paper
on the Ising lattice (1949,2) and his remarks on spontaneous
magnetization and quantized vorticity (1949,3, p. 261), but