Monday, May 19, 2008

Willis E. Lamb Jr., Died at Age of 94

Anyone who has studied quantum mechanics would have come across his name and the "Lamb shift" named after him. Willis Lamb died this past week at the age of 94.

A professor emeritus at the University of Arizona, Dr. Lamb received a 1955 Nobel Prize in physics for his experimental work on the fine structure of the hydrogen atom and for the discovery of what came to be called "the Lamb shift," a tiny deviation in the energy of an electron orbiting a hydrogen atom's nucleus. The discovery had enormous implications for the quantum theory of matter.


Zz.

No comments: