PHYSICIST

Arthur Ashkin

1922 - 2020

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Arthur Ashkin (September 2, 1922 – September 21, 2020) was an American scientist and Nobel laureate who worked at Bell Labs. Ashkin has been considered by many as the father of optical tweezers, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 at age 96, becoming the oldest Nobel laureate until 2019 when John B. Goodenough was awarded at 97. He resided in Rumson, New Jersey. Ashkin started his work on manipulation of microparticles with laser light in the late 1960s which resulted in the invention of optical tweezers in 1986. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Arthur Ashkin is the 239th most popular physicist (down from 212th in 2019), the 996th most popular biography from United States (down from 820th in 2019) and the 50th most popular American Physicist.

Arthur Ashkin is most famous for inventing the optical tweezers.

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Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, Arthur Ashkin ranks 239 out of 851. Before him are Jacques Charles, Victor Weisskopf, Tsung-Dao Lee, Leo Esaki, Vitaly Ginzburg, and Nikolay Basov. After him are Willard Boyle, John Cockcroft, Gérard Mourou, William Shockley, David Bohm, and Satyendra Nath Bose.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1922, Arthur Ashkin ranks 45. Before him are Otto Carius, Nándor Hidegkuti, Julius Nyerere, Nikolay Basov, Miguel Muñoz, and Liliane Bettencourt. After him are Jacques Piccard, Nils Liedholm, Leon M. Lederman, Ademir de Menezes, Seymour Martin Lipset, and Roger Etchegaray. Among people deceased in 2020, Arthur Ashkin ranks 36. Before him are Abdul Halim Khaddam, Stanley Cohen, John Lewis, Diana Rigg, John le Carré, and Bettina Heinen-Ayech. After him are Lee Teng-hui, Little Richard, Juliette Gréco, Kenny Rogers, Dmitry Yazov, and Michael Lonsdale.

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Arthur Ashkin ranks 996 out of 20,380. Before him are Woody Guthrie (1912), Benny Goodman (1909), Talia Shire (1946), Burt Reynolds (1936), Jules Dassin (1911), and Frances McDormand (1957). After him are John Mott (1865), Andre Agassi (1970), Douglas Fairbanks (1883), Greg Abbott (1957), William H. Macy (1950), and Frances Farmer (1913).

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Among PHYSICISTS In United States

Among physicists born in United States, Arthur Ashkin ranks 50. Before him are Melvin Schwartz (1932), Roy J. Glauber (1925), Ralph Asher Alpher (1921), Michio Kaku (1947), Frederick Reines (1918), and Robert Hofstadter (1915). After him are David Bohm (1992), Kenneth G. Wilson (1936), Benjamin Thompson (1753), Leon M. Lederman (1922), John L. Hall (1934), and John Archibald Wheeler (1911).

American born Physicists

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