PHYSICIST

Willis Lamb

1913 - 2008

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Willis Eugene Lamb Jr. (July 12, 1913 – May 15, 2008) was an American physicist who shared the 1955 Nobel Prize in Physics with Polykarp Kusch "for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum". Lamb was able to precisely determine a surprising shift in electron energies in a hydrogen atom, known as the Lamb shift. He was a professor at the University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Willis Lamb is the 117th most popular physicist (down from 104th in 2019), the 367th most popular biography from United States (up from 371st in 2019) and the 16th most popular American Physicist.

Willis Lamb is most famous for his discovery of the Lamb shift in the hydrogen spectrum. This discovery was the first experimental evidence that the electron can behave as a wave as well as a particle.

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Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, Willis Lamb ranks 117 out of 851. Before him are Peter Higgs, Ernest Lawrence, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Heinrich Rohrer, Walther Bothe, and Peter Grünberg. After him are Ernst Ruska, Arnold Sommerfeld, François Arago, Albert Fert, Owen Chamberlain, and Anders Jonas Ångström.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1913, Willis Lamb ranks 15. Before him are Robert Capa, Burt Lancaster, Klaus Barbie, Claude Simon, Paul Ricœur, and Josef Bican. After him are Jesse Owens, Bảo Đại, Gustáv Husák, Ramón Mercader, Makarios III, and Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona. Among people deceased in 2008, Willis Lamb ranks 11. Before him are Bobby Fischer, Chinghiz Aitmatov, Edmund Hillary, Charlton Heston, Arthur C. Clarke, and Samuel P. Huntington. After him are Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, Hua Guofeng, Albert Hofmann, Irena Sendler, Richard Widmark, and Miriam Makeba.

Others Born in 1913

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Willis Lamb ranks 367 out of 20,380. Before him are Wendell Meredith Stanley (1904), Rita Hayworth (1918), Irvin D. Yalom (1931), Bernie Sanders (1941), Margaret Hamilton (1936), and Ed White (1930). After him are Robert E. Lee (1807), Jimmy Wales (1966), Jesse Owens (1913), Spencer Tracy (1900), Philip K. Dick (1928), and Ava Gardner (1922).

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Among PHYSICISTS In United States

Among physicists born in United States, Willis Lamb ranks 16. Before him are Barry Barish (1936), Ben Roy Mottelson (1926), Percy Williams Bridgman (1882), Donald A. Glaser (1926), Clinton Davisson (1881), and Ernest Lawrence (1901). After him are Owen Chamberlain (1920), Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (1921), Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839), Arthur Compton (1892), James Rainwater (1917), and Robert Coleman Richardson (1937).

American born Physicists

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