Willis Lamb
Willis Eugene Lamb, Jr. ( born July 12, 1913 in Los Angeles, † 15 May, 2008 Tucson, Arizona ) was an American physicist. 1955 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to him.
Life
Lamb was born as the son of Willis Eugene Lamb phone technician Sr. and his wife Mary Helen Metcalf. He began in 1930 to study chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, which he in 1934 with the BS completed. In 1938 he earned his doctorate under Robert Oppenheimer in theoretical physics on the electromagnetic properties of nuclear systems. He then went to the University of Columbia and was founded in 1945 as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor in 1947 and was appointed professor in 1948. He moved in 1951 to Stanford University in California, 1953/54, he was Morris Loeb Lecturer at Harvard, 1956-1962 Wykeham Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford and then Henry Ford II Professor at Yale University in New Haven. Since 1974, Lamb was a professor at the University of Arizona. He retired in 2002.
Among his doctoral students include Norman Kroll, Marlan O. Scully and Murray Sargent.
Work
Lamb dealt with the interaction of neutrons with matter, Field theories of nuclear structure theories for beta decay, cosmic radiation, pair production, ordering phenomena, Quadrupoleffekten in molecules, diamagnetic corrections to nuclear resonance experiments, and the theory and design of the magnetron, the theory of microwave spectroscopy, the study of the fine structure of hydrogen, deuterium and helium, and the shifts of the energy levels by quantum electrodynamic effects. According to him, the effect of the Lamb shift ( Lamb shift) was called, he investigated experimentally and theoretically explained in 1949 with Norman Kroll.
Lamb was awarded the 1955 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum ", the other half of the prize went to Polycarp Kusch.
According to him, the Lamb dip is named (see Doppler-free saturation spectroscopy).
Lamb was also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, and the American Physical Society. He is named the " Willis Lamb Jr. Scholarship " at the University of Arizona and the Willis E. Lamb Award.
Awards and Affiliations
- Fellow, American Physical Society ( Board of Editors, 1949-1951 )
- Rumford Premium, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1953
- Honorary Doctorate D. Sc. the University of Pennsylvania, 1953
- Inclusion in the National Academy of Sciences, 1954
- Research Corporation Award, 1955
- Nobel Prize in Physics, 1955
- Honorific M. A. Oxford University, 1956
- Guthrie Award, Physical Society (London ), 1958
- Guggenheim Fellowship, 1960-1961
- Honorific M. A. Yale University, 1961
- Honorary Fellow, Institute of Physics and Physical Society, 1962
- Yeshiva University Award, 1962
- Member of the Scientific Council Belfer Graduate School, Yeshiva University, 1963-1968
- Honorary Doctorate LHD Yeshiva University, 1965
- Honorary Doctorate D. Sc. of Gustavus Adolphus College, 1975
- Fellow, Optical Society of America, 1976-1980
- Honorary Life Member of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1979
- Honorary Fellow, Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1981
- Honorary Doctorate D. Sc. Columbia University, 1990
- Senior Fellowship, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, 1992-1994
- Einstein Medal, Society for Optical and Quantum Electronics, 1992
- Center for Philosophy of Science, London School for Economics, 1993-2002
- Honorary Doctorate D. rer. nat. h c. the University of Ulm, 1997
- National Medal of Science, 2000
- World Federation of Scientists, Gian Carlo Wick Gold Medal, 2002
- Nobel Foundation, Lennart Bernadotte Award, 2004