geoffrey foucar chew (june 5, 1924 – april 11, 2019) was an american theoretical physicist. he was known for his bootstrap theory of strong interactions. he also worked on the manhattan project. he was a professor of physics at the university of california, berkeley from 1957. he was an emeritus professor from 1991 at berkeley. he was also a physics faculty at the university of illinois from 1950 to 1956. he was a student of enrico fermi. chew's students included nobel prize in physics-winning david gross, and john henry schwarz. his awards included the hughes prize (1962), lawrence prize (1969) and majorana prize (2008).