In 1975, an amusing yet true incident added a delightful twist to the annals of scientific publishing. A cat named "F.D.C. Willard" became the co-author of a serious physics paper published in a respected journal. The cat’s foray into academic authorship began when physicist Jack H. Hetherington, at Michigan State University, used "we" instead of "I" throughout his original draft. On realizing that editing the paper to correct the pronouns would be laborious, and the journal required papers written in plural first-person to have multiple authors, Hetherington decided to enlist his Siamese cat as a co-author.
The cat's official name was Chester, but for the purposes of the paper, Hetherington fabricated an impressive moniker, F.D.C. Willard—the initials standing for "Felis Domesticus Chester" with the surname "Willard" taken from the cat's father's name. "F.D.C." was linked to Chester while "Willard" gave a semblance of gravitas and academic legitimacy.
The paper, titled "Two-, Three-, and Four-Atom Exchange Effects in bcc 3He" was accepted and published in the journal "Physical Review Letters", one of the most prestigious journals in the field of physics. Remarkably, the paper became quite influential in the field of low-temperature physics, cited by other researchers who were apparently unaware of the unusual nature of one of its authors.
Hetherington's cat's involvement remained a secret for some time until Hetherington revealed the true identity of F.D.C. Willard upon being pressed by colleagues who noticed peculiarities in Willard's supposed biography. After revealing the co-author's true feline nature, the story of F.D.C. Willard's academic career became one of the celebrated anecdotes in the scientific community, highlighting a lighter side to the often serious world of scientific research.
This event famously underscores not only the occasional idiosyncrasies that underpin scientific practice but also reflects on the stringent, sometimes inflexible guidelines surrounding academic publishing. Moreover, F.D.C. Willard’s story has been repurposed to address discussions about the credibility and seriousness of authorship and the peer review process in the academic world, showing that even in a field as rigorous as physics, there’s room for a bit of humor and whimsy.
