Willis Eugene Lamb

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Willis E. Lamb

Willis Eugene Lamb, Jr. (born July 12, 1913 in Los Angeles , † May 15, 2008 in Tucson , Arizona) was an American physicist . In 1955 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics .

Life

Lamb was the son of telephone technician Willis Eugene Lamb Sr. and his wife Marie Helen Metcalf. He began studying chemistry in 1930 at the University of California, Berkeley , from which he graduated in 1934 with a BS. In 1938 he received his doctorate under Robert Oppenheimer in theoretical physics on the electromagnetic properties of nuclear systems. He then went to Columbia University and was appointed Assistant Professor in 1945, Associate Professor in 1947 and Professor in 1948. In 1951 he moved to Stanford University in California , 1953/54 he was Morris Loeb Lecturer at Harvard , from 1956 to 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 . In 2002 he retired .

Lamb married the German student Ursula Schaefer in 1939. After the death of his first wife, Lamb married the Israeli physicist Bruria Kaufman in 1996 .

His PhD students include Norman Kroll , Marlan O. Scully, and Murray Sargent .

plant

Lamb dealt with the interaction of neutrons with matter, field theories of the nuclear structure , theories of beta decay , cosmic radiation , pair production, order phenomena, quadrupole effects in molecules , diamagnetic corrections to nuclear resonance experiments as well as the theory and design of magnetrons , the theory of microwave spectroscopy, the Study of the fine structure of hydrogen , deuterium and helium and the shifts in energy levels due to quantum electrodynamic effects. According to him, the effect was Lamb shift (Lamb shift) named, he experimentally investigated and in 1949 with Norman Kroll theoretically explained.

Lamb was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1955 "for the discovery of the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum ", the other half of the prize went to Polykarp Kusch .

The Lamb dip is also named after Lamb (see Doppler-free saturation spectroscopy ).

Lamb was a member of the National Academy of Sciences , Washington, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1963) and the American Physical Society . He is the namesake of the "Willis Lamb Jr. Scholarship" at the University of Arizona and the Willis E. Lamb Prize .

Awards and memberships

literature

  • Wolfgang P. Schleich: Obituary for Willis Eugene Lamb . In: Physik Journal , 09/2008, p. 127
  • Murray Sargent: Willis E. Lamb (1913-2008). Meticulous physicist and discoverer of the Lamb shift . In: Nature , 453, 867, 2008, doi: 10.1038 / 453867a
  • Willis E. Lamb: The interpretation of quantum mechanics. Rinton Pr., Princeton 2001, ISBN 1-58949-005-3

Web links

Commons : Willis Lamb  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Lamb, Willis Eugene
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lamb, Willis Eugene Junior
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physicist
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , USA
DATE OF DEATH May 15, 2008
Place of death Tucson , Arizona, USA