Nobel Prize

Hideki Yukawa was born in Tokyo, Japan, on 23rd January, 1907, the third son of Takuji Ogawa, who later became Professor of Geology at Kyoto University. The future Laureate was brought up in Kyoto and graduated from the local university in 1929. Since that time he has been engaged on investigations in theoretical physics, particularly…

Alfred Kastler was born in Guebwiller in Alsace on May 3, 1902. He followed his early studies at the school in his native town, and continued at the Oberrealschule of Colmar, which became the Lycee Bartholdi in 1918, when Alsace was returned to France. He entered the École Normale Superieure in 1921, and left in…

Life goes on surprisingly fast. It seems to happen a short time ago that I would attend anniversary celebrations in honour of noted physicists, my teachers who to my mind looked quite old. But at the present time, I myself have recently marked the 70th birthday. My parents, Ivan Karpovich, and Anna Vladimirovna, had been…

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…

I was born on August 25, 1928 in Weimar, Germany. My father was a civil servant working for the city administration of my home town; my mother was a classical German “Hausfrau.” Both came from simple skilled-craftsmen families. Neither had a high-school education, but there was never any doubt that they wanted to have their…

Luis W. Alvarez was born in San Francisco, Calif., on June 13, 1911. He received his B.Sc. from the University of Chicago in 1932, a M.Sc. in 1934, and his Ph.D. in 1936. Dr. Alvarez joined the Radiation Laboratory of the University of California, where he is now a professor, as a research fellow in…

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…

The Nobel Committee has asked me to discuss my life story, so I guess I should begin at the beginning. I was born in 1923 in Great Bend, Kansas, which got its name because the town was built at the spot where the Arkansas River bends in the middle of the state. I grew up…

John Lewis Hall (known by many as Jan) was born on August 21, 1934 in Denver, Colorado. His father (John Ernest Hall) was trained as an electrical engineer and worked for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on many hydroelectric projects here and overseas. His mother, Rae (Long) Hall was an elementary school teacher and singer.…

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.…