Albert A. Michelson

Not to be confused with the athlete Albert Michelsen.

Albert Abraham Michelson
FRS FRAS
Michelson in 1907
Born(1852-12-19)December 19, 1852
Strelno, Province of Posen, Kingdom of Prussia
(now Strzelno, Poland)
DiedMay 9, 1931(1931-05-09) (aged 78)
Pasadena, California, U.S.
Alma materUnited States Naval Academy
University of Berlin
Known for
Spouses
Margaret Hemingway
​
​
(m. 1877; div. 1898)​

Edna Stanton
​
(m. 1899)​
Children6
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
Institutions
Doctoral advisorHermann von Helmholtz
Other academic advisorsGeorg Hermann Quincke[1]
Marie Alfred Cornu[1]
Doctoral studentsRobert Millikan
William Smythe
Military career
Allegiance United States
Branch
[2]
Service years1873–1881; 1918–1921[2]
RankCommander
UnitUnited States Naval Academy
Signature

Albert Abraham Michelson FRS FRAS (surname pronunciation anglicized as Michael-son; December 19, 1852 – May 9, 1931) was a German-American physicist known for his work on measuring the speed of light and especially for the Michelson–Morley experiment. In 1907, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics, becoming the first American to win the Nobel Prize in a science. He was the founder and the first head of the physics departments of Case School of Applied Science (now Case Western Reserve University) and the University of Chicago.[3][4][5]

  1. ^ a b Loyd S. Swenson, Jr., The Ethereal Aether, University of Texas Press, 2013.
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Albert A. Michelson, Physics". www.lib.uchicago.edu. Archived from the original on October 21, 2017. Retrieved August 2, 2019.
  4. ^ "Guide to the Albert A. Michelson Papers 1891–1969". www.lib.uchicago.edu. Archived from the original on September 7, 2019. Retrieved August 2, 2019.
  5. ^ "Michelson, Albert A. (Albert Abraham), 1852-1931". history.aip.org. Archived from the original on March 22, 2019. Retrieved August 2, 2019.