Robert Woodrow Wilson

For more information on Robert Woodrow Wilson, visit Britannica.com.

American astrophysicist (1936–)

Wilson studied initially at Rice University in his native city of Houston, where he gained his BA in physics in 1957; he went on to obtain his PhD from the California Institute of Technology in 1962. He joined the Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, New Jersey, in 1963 and served as head of the radiophysics research department from 1976 to 1990.

It was at the Bell Laboratories that he and his coworker Arno Penzias found the first evidence in 1964 of the cosmic microwave background radiation, which is now widely interpreted as being the remnant radiation from the ‘big bang’ creation of the universe several billion years ago. The two men were jointly honored with the 1978 Nobel Prize for physics, which they shared with Pyotr L. Kapitza for his (unrelated) discoveries in low-temperature physics.

Wilson is continuing his astrophysics work with Penzias, looking for interstellar molecules and determining the relative abundances of interstellar isotopes.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: United States physicist honored for his work on cosmic microwave radiation (born in 1918)
  Synonym: Wilson

For other persons named Robert Wilson, see Robert Wilson (disambiguation).

For the American President, see Woodrow Wilson.

Robert Woodrow Wilson (left) with Arno Allan Penzias
Born	January 10, 1936 (1936-01-10) (age 73) Houston, Texas, USA
Nationality	United States
Fields	Physics
Alma mater	Rice University
Known for	Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
Notable awards	Nobel Prize in Physics (1978)

Robert Woodrow Wilson (born January 10, 1936) is an American astronomer, Nobel laureate in physics, who with Arno Allan Penzias discovered in 1964 the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). The award purse was also shared with a 3rd scientist, Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa for unrelated work.

While working on a new type of antenna at Bell Labs in Holmdel, New Jersey, they found a source of noise in the atmosphere that they could not explain. After removing all potential sources of noise, including pigeon droppings on the antenna, the noise was finally identified as CMB, which served as important corroboration of the Big Bang theory.

Contents 1 Life and work 2 Notes 3 References 4 External links

Life and work

Robert Woodrow Wilson was born on January 10, 1936, in Houston, Texas. He graduated from Lamar High School in downtown Houston^[1] and studied as an undergraduate at Rice University (Houston), where he was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa society. His graduate work was done at California Institute of Technology.

Wilson and Penzias also won the Henry Draper Medal in 1977.

Notes

1. ^ "Distinguished HISD Alumni," Houston Independent School District

References

• "Distinguished HISD Alumni", Houston Independent School District, Houston, Texas, 2008.

External links

• Robert Woodrow Wilson: Official Nobel page
• Annotated bibliography for Robert Wilson from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues

v • d • e Nobel Laureates in Physics Burton Richter / Samuel C. C. Ting (1976) · Philip Anderson / Nevill Mott / John van Vleck (1977) · Pyotr Kapitsa / Arno Penzias / Robert Wilson (1978) · Sheldon Glashow / Abdus Salam / Steven Weinberg (1979) · James Cronin / Val Fitch (1980) · Nicolaas Bloembergen / Arthur Schawlow / Kai Siegbahn (1981) · Kenneth G. Wilson (1982) · Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar / William Fowler (1983) · Carlo Rubbia / Simon van der Meer (1984) · Klaus von Klitzing (1985) · Ernst Ruska / Gerd Binnig / Heinrich Rohrer (1986) · Johannes Bednorz / Karl Müller (1987) · Leon M. Lederman / Melvin Schwartz / Jack Steinberger (1988) · Norman Ramsey / Hans Dehmelt / Wolfgang Paul (1989) · Jerome Friedman / Henry Kendall / Richard E. Taylor (1990) · Pierre de Gennes (1991) · Georges Charpak (1992) · Russell Hulse / Joseph Taylor (1993) · Bertram Brockhouse / Clifford Shull (1994) · Martin Perl / Frederick Reines (1995) · D. Lee / Douglas D. Osheroff / Robert Richardson (1996) · Steven Chu / Claude Cohen-Tannoudji / William Phillips (1997) · Robert B. Laughlin / Horst Störmer / Daniel C. Tsui (1998) · Gerardus 't Hooft / Martinus J. G. Veltman (1999) · Zhores Alferov / Herbert Kroemer / Jack Kilby (2000) Complete roster | (1901–1925) | (1926–1950) | (1951–1975) | (1976–2000) | (2001–present)

Persondata
NAME	Wilson, Robert Woodrow
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	American astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH	January 10, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH

This United States astronomer article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)