Dr. Little began his study of physics at Brown University in 1958, graduating in 1962 with highest honors. He was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship and a National Science Foundation Fellowship and, in 1962, entered the graduate Department of Physics, Princeton University, as a candidate for a degree in theoretical particle physics.

During his first two years at Princeton, Dr. Little recognized serious shortcomings in quantum mechanics, both in the theory itself and in the various philosophies used to rationalize those shortcomings. His efforts to persuade his professors of the value of an alternative approach were unsuccessful. Unwilling to do research based on a theory that he was certain was wrong, Dr. Little withdrew from Princeton in 1967. He completed his doctorate at New York University in 1974, writing his dissertation in an experimental area not involving quantum mechanics.

Dr. Little’s efforts to understand where quantum mechanics went wrong extended over a period of thirty years, from 1963 to 1993. The solution came to him on a Sunday morning in March 1993 during a conversation with his wife on an unrelated subject.

Because he, like most physicists, accepted both the validity of the various `hidden variables proofs’ and the usual interpretation of those proofs, Dr. Little lost many years looking in the wrong places for a solution. After March 1993, armed with the solution, he recognized that those proofs, far from demonstrating that quantum mechanics is the ultimate theory, prove precisely the opposite. Indeed, one of these, Bell's theorem, provides an almost direct proof of the hypothesis which constitutes the foundation of Dr. Little's Theory of Elementary Waves the reverse motion of the waves.

Although not his principle area of focus, Dr. Little was as troubled by the special theory of relativity at least in its usual interpretations as he was by quantum mechanics. He became convinced early on that the two theories were intimately connected and that a resolution of the problems in one would, at the very least, be helpful in understanding the other. This conviction proved rewarding . Upon positing the reverse motion of quantum waves, Dr. Little immediately recognized that this provided a simple, physical explanation for the equations of relativity theory. He concluded that the two theories are not merely connected, but that they are one and the same theory.

The essence of The Theory of Elementary Waves is presented in Dr. Little’s paper published in Physics Essays (vol.9, no.1, March 1996). He is currently writing a book which will present the theory more comprehensively and in greater detail.