Robert Woodrow Wilson

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Robert Woodrow Wilson (left) with Arno Penzias

Robert Woodrow Wilson (born January 10, 1936 in Houston , Texas ) is an American physicist and Nobel laureate in physics.

Wilson graduated from Rice University and the California Institute of Technology .

He received 1978 together with Arno Penzias the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation ( Engl. : Cosmic Microwave Background , CMB). The couple made this discovery by chance in 1964 while they were working on a new type of antenna at the Bell Laboratories in Holmdel , New Jersey . They discovered a background noise that they could not explain. After removing pigeon droppings from the antenna , but the noise remained, it was ultimately identified as cosmic background radiation. This is seen as an experimental confirmation of the Big Bang theory.

Awards

Web links

Commons : Robert Woodrow Wilson  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Member History: Robert W. Wilson. American Philosophical Society, accessed November 18, 2018 (with biographical notes).