Meet the 78-year-old Nobel Prize-nominated physicist starting a hedge fund because 'life can be very boring'

A 78-year-old physicist who helped discover a fundamental constituent of matter is starting a hedge fund.

George Zweig is looking to launch his Signition fund in New York later this year, The Wall Street Journal's Juliet Chung reports.

Zweig trained under Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman and was later nominated for Nobel Prize himself, according to an article he wrote.

He is credited with proposing one of the first theories of subatomic particles called quarks while working at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, known as CERN.

He later worked on an electronic barrier system to prevent the flow of goods from North to South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, according to the report. He also wrote an algorithm that led to the creation of the cochlear hearing implant.

He worked at hedge fund Renaissance from 2003-2010, signing a four-year non-compete contract, the Journal reported.

Now he's starting anew alongside two younger partners because, he told the Journal, "'life can be very boring.'"

Read the full story in The Wall Street Journal »