Biographical
Bertram N. Brockhouse – Biographical
Biographical
It appears that I was born in hospital in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada on July 15, 1918. My first memories are of a farm near Milk River where I lived with my mother and father and my sister, Alice Evelyn, and a variety of farm and domestic animals. My father, Israel Bertram Brockhouse, had homesteaded with…
moreCecil Powell – Biographical
Biographical
Cecil Frank Powell was born on December 5th, 1903, at Tonbridge, Kent, where his father, Frank Powell, was one of a family of gunsmiths who had long practised the trade in the town. His grandfather, George Bisacre, had established a private school in the nearby town of Southborough and his family ties and influences therefore…
moreDennis Gabor – Biographical
Biographical
I was born in Budapest, Hungary, on June 5, 1900, the oldest son of Bertalan Gabor, director of a mining company, and his wife Adrienne. My life-long love of physics started suddenly at the age of 15. I could not wait until I got to the university, I learned the calculus and worked through the…
moreAage N. Bohr – Biographical
Biographical
I was born in Copenhagen on June 19, 1922, as the fourth son of and Margrethe Bohr (née Nørlund). During my early childhood, my parents lived at the Institute for Theoretical Physics (now the Niels Bohr Institute), and the remarkable generation of scientists who came to join my father in his work became for us…
moreBen R. Mottelson – Biographical
Biographical
I was born in Chicago, Illinois, on July 9, 1926, the second of three children of Goodman Mottelson and Georgia Mottelson (née Blum). My father held a university degree in engineering. My childhood home was a place where scientific, political and moral issues were freely and vigorously discussed. I attended primary school and high school…
moreJames Rainwater – Biographical
Biographical
I was born December 9, 1917 in a small town in Idaho (Council) where my parents had moved to from California to operate a general store. My father, who had previously been a civil engineer, died in the great influenza epidemic of 1918. My mother then moved with me and her mother to Hanford, Calif.…
moreArno Penzias – Biographical
Biographical
I was born in Munich, Germany, in 1933. I spent the first six years of my life comfortably, as an adored child in a closely-knit middle-class family. Even when my family was rounded up for deportation to Poland it didn’t occur to me that anything could happen to us. All I remember is scrambling up…
moreRobert Woodrow Wilson – Biographical
Biographical
My grandparents moved to Texas from the South after the U.S. Civil War and settled on small farms in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. Both families emphasized education as the way to improve their children’s lives and both my parents managed to graduate from college. After receiving an M.A. in chemistry from Rice University, my father…
moreNorman F. Ramsey – Biographical
Biographical
I was born August 27, 1915 in Washington, D.C. My mother, daughter of German immigrants, had been a mathematics instructor at the University of Kansas. My father, descended from Scottish refugees and a West Point graduate, was an officer in the Army Ordnance Corps. His frequently changing assignments took us from Washington, DC to Topeka,…
moreRobert C. Richardson – Biographical
Biographical
I was born on June 26, 1937 in Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC. My parents, Lois Price Richardson and Robert Franklin Richardson, lived in Arlington, VA. My sister and only sibling, Addie Ann Richardson, was born on May 6, 1939, also in Georgetown University Hospital. My earliest memories are of the apartment building in…
more