Copyright OIST (Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, 沖縄科学技術大学院大学) · CC BY 4.0

Shared the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physics with Henry Kendall and Richard Taylor for experiments firing high-energy electrons at protons and neutrons — deep inelastic scattering — that revealed particles inside them behaving as distinct, hard points rather than a smooth blur. That evidence became essential to establishing the quark model of matter. Friedman spent his career at MIT and has served on the board of sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.