Species Felis catus | ||
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F.D.C. Willard (1975–1980) was the pen name of a Siamese cat named Chester, who internationally published under this name on low temperature physics in scientific journals, once as a co-author and another time as the sole author.
Contents
Background
The American physicist and mathematician Jack H. Hetherington, Michigan State University, in 1975 wanted to publish some of his research results in the field of low temperature physics in the scientific journal Physical Review Letters. A colleague, to whom he had given his paper for review, pointed out to Hetherington that he had made frequent use of the first person plural and that the journal rejects this form on submissions with a sole author. Rather than rewriting the article to fix it, or looking for a co-author, Hetherington decided to invent one.
Publications
Hetherington had a Siamese cat named Chester, who was sired by a cat named Willard. Fearing that some of his colleagues would recognize his pet's name, he thought it better to use the pet's initial. Aware that most Americans had at least two given names, he invented two more given names based on the species name for a house cat, Felis domesticus, and abbreviated them accordingly: F.D.C. His article entitled "Two-, Three-, and Four-Atom Exchange Effects in bcc ³He", written by J.H. Hetherington and F.D.C. Willard, was accepted by the journal and published in number 35 of November 1975.
At the 15th International Conference on Low Temperature Physics in 1978 in Grenoble, Hetherington’s second author was exposed; Hetherington had signed his article with the paw prints of his co-author and sent some copies to friends and colleagues. Nevertheless, another essay appeared, now solely authored by F.D.C. Willard, entitled "L'hélium 3 solide. Un antiferromagnétique nucléaire", published in September 1980 in the French popular science magazine La Recherche. Subsequently, Willard disappeared as an author from the professional world.
Reception
The unmasking of the second author of Hetherington's Physical Review essay, which was frequently referenced, caused the co-authorship to become world-famous. The story goes that when inquiries were made to Hetherington’s office at Michigan State University, and Hetherington was absent, the callers would ask to speak to the co-author instead. F.D.C. Willard appeared henceforth repeatedly in footnotes, where he was thanked for "useful contributions to the discussion" or oral communications, and even offered a position as a professor. F.D.C. Willard is also famous in a list of "Historical Cats". As an April Fool's joke, the American Physical Society announced that cat-authored papers, including the Hetherington/Willard paper, would henceforth be open-access.