John Archibald Wheeler -- A Bit of Advice Through Example. (July 7, 2008)

The brilliant theoretical physicist who coined the term "black hole" died three months ago, age 96.

During his long career his 100 students included Richard Feynman and Kip Thorne.

In his Science obituary Professor Thorne reminds us:

Wheeler was full of beautiful ideas for research projects, and many of his students and his students' students launched their careers by exploiting those ideas.

Rarely did Wheeler join his students as a co-author, even when all key ideas were his. He reasoned that, if his name appeared with theirs, readers would forget them and credit the work to him. He was loved and respected for his generosity and kindness, as well as for his vision and accomplishments.

But it must have had a drastically deleterious effect on his citation statistics.