that was richard feynman the famous physicist??
Feynman was the guy who did the nifty demo with the o-ring. I'm not sure whether he's the one behind the idea in the first place or not. I presume lots of very smart people were thinking very hard. It may have been something of a group effort, for which Feynman became the spokesman.
No it was Roger M. Boisjoly, an engineer at Morton-Thiokol in Utah the manufacturer of the STS SRBs (solid rocket boosters) located in Utah.
He risked his career and the jobs of all his coworkers by displaying an ethical conscience. Morton-Thiokol's livelihood depended on their sole contract to NASA.
He had many heated discussions even the night before the fateful Challenger launch to plead for a review of past O-Ring blowbys. The SRBs were parachuted after launch and retrieved in the sea. They were then sent to Morton-Thiokol for inspection.
Roger was told to 'take off his engineering hat and put on his management hat'.