James Trefil
James Stanley Trefil (born September 10, 1938) is an American physicist (Ph.D. in physics at Stanford University in 1966) and author of nearly fifty books. Much of his published work focuses on science for the general audience. He has served as Professor of Physics at the University of Virginia and, since 1988, as Robinson Professor of Physics at George Mason University. Among his books is Are We Unique?, an argument for human uniqueness in which he questions the comparisons between human intelligence and artificial intelligence. Trefil has also given presentations to judges and public officials about the intersections between science and the law. Biography Trefil was born on 10 September 1938 in Chicago, Illinois. He was the son of Stanley James Trefil (a personnel manager) and Sylvia (Mestek) Trefil (a social worker). He obtained his Bachelor of Science at the University of Illinois in 1960, and later that year matriculated at Merton College, Oxford, where he took a second class degree in physics in 1962. He read his Master of Arts at Oxford University (England) in 1962 where he studied as a Marshall Scholar. While at Oxford, Trefil was a member of the Oxford University men's basketball team. In 1964