Arthur Compton
Born	September 10, 1892(1892-09-10) Wooster, Ohio, USA
Died	March 15, 1962 (aged 69) Berkeley, California, USA
Nationality	United States
Field	Physicist
Institutions	University of Chicago Washington University in St. Louis
Alma mater	College of Wooster Princeton University
Academic advisor	Owen Willans Richardson H. L. Cooke
Notable students	Winston H. Bostick Robert S. Shankland
Known for	Compton effect Compton length Compton scattering Compton wavelength Compton shift
Notable prizes	Nobel Prize for Physics (1927)
Compton is the son of Elias Compton, brother of Wilson Compton and Karl Taylor Compton, and father of John Joseph Compton.

Arthur Holly Compton (September 10, 1892 – March 15, 1962) won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1927) for discovery of the Compton effect named in his honor. He served as Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis from 1946 to 1953. If you hold the copyright to an image (e. ... is the 253rd day of the year (254th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Wayne County courthouse in downtown Wooster Wooster (IPA ) first syllable pronounced puss--like the cat--with a w is a city in Wayne County, Ohio, United States. ... is the 74th day of the year (75th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in northern California, in the United States. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Not to be confused with physician, a person who practices medicine. ... The University of Chicago is a private university located principally in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. ... “Washington University” redirects here. ... The College of Wooster is a liberal arts college with fewer than 2000 students located in Wooster, Ohio, in Wayne County, Ohio. ... Princeton University is a private coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. ... Owen Willans Richardson (down) Solvay conference 1927 Sir Owen Willans Richardson (April 26, 1879 - February 15, 1959) was a British physicist, a professor at Princeton University from 1906 to 1913, and a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1928 for his work on the thermionic phenomenon and especially... Image File history File links Nobel_prize_medal. ... Winston H. Bostick (March 5, 1916 - January 19, 1991) was an American physicist who discovered plasmoids, plasma focus, and plasma vortex phenomena. ... Robert S. Shankland (1908–1982) was an American physicist and historian. ... The Compton Effect is the second album from rapper Greydon Square. ... The Compton wavelength of a particle is given by , where is the Planck constant, is the particles mass and is the speed of light. ... In physics, Compton scattering or the Compton effect, is the decrease in energy (increase in wavelength) of an X-ray or gamma ray photon, when it interacts with matter. ... The Compton wavelength of a particle is given by , where is the Planck constant, is the particles mass and is the speed of light. ... In physics, Compton scattering or the Compton effect, is the decrease in energy (increase in wavelength) of an X-ray or gamma ray photon, when it interacts with matter. ... Image File history File links Nobel_prize_medal. ... List of Nobel Prize laureates in Physics from 1901 to the present day. ... Karl Taylor Compton (1887-1954) was a prominent American physicist and president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (1930-1948). ... is the 253rd day of the year (254th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... is the 74th day of the year (75th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Hannes Alfvén (1908–1995) accepting the Nobel Prize for his work on magnetohydrodynamics [1]. List of Nobel Prize laureates in Physics from 1901 to the present day. ... The Compton Effect is the second album from rapper Greydon Square. ... “Washington University” redirects here. ...

Biography

Early years

Arthur Holly Compton was born in Wooster, Ohio in 1892 to Elias and Otelia Compton. They were an academic family; his father Elias Compton was dean of The University of Wooster (later The College of Wooster), which Arthur attended. His eldest brother Karl Taylor Compton also attended The University of Wooster, became a physicist, and was later president of MIT; his second brother Wilson M. Compton became a diplomat and president of the State College of Washington, later Washington State University. Around 1913, Compton devised a demonstration method for the Earth's rotation. Wayne County courthouse in downtown Wooster Wooster (IPA ) first syllable pronounced puss--like the cat--with a w is a city in Wayne County, Ohio, United States. ... The College of Wooster is a private liberal arts college primarily known for its Independent Study program (see below). ... Karl Taylor Compton (1887-1954) was a prominent American physicist and president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (1930-1948). ... Mapúa Institute of Technology (MIT, MapúaTech or simply Mapúa) is a private, non-sectarian, Filipino tertiary institute located in Intramuros, Manila. ... Washington State University (WSU) is a major public research university in Pullman, Washington. ... This article is about Earth as a planet. ... This article is about rotation as a movement of a physical body. ...

In 1918, Compton began studying X-ray scattering. In 1922, Compton found that X-rays wavelength increases due to scattering of the radiant energy by "free electrons". Scattered quanta have less energy than the quanta of the original ray. This discovery, known as the "Compton effect," or "Compton scattering" demonstrates the "particle" concept of electromagnetic radiation and earned Compton the Nobel Prize in physics in 1927. Compton developed the method for observing at the same instant individual scattered X-ray photons and the recoil electrons (developed with Alfred W. Simon). In Germany, Walther Bothe and Hans Geiger independently developed a similar method. In the NATO phonetic alphabet, X-ray represents the letter X. An X-ray picture (radiograph) taken by Röntgen An X-ray is a form of electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength approximately in the range of 5 pm to 10 nanometers (corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 PHz... Radiant energy is the energy of electromagnetic waves. ... In physics, the free electron model is a possible model for the behaviour of electrons in a crystal structure. ... In physics quanta is the plural of quantum. ... In physics, Compton scattering or the Compton effect, is the decrease in energy (increase in wavelength) of an X-ray or gamma ray photon, when it interacts with matter. ... Thousands of particles explode from the collision point of two relativistic (100 GeV per nucleon) gold ions in the STAR detector of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. ... Electromagnetic waves can be imagined as a self-propagating transverse oscillating wave of electric and magnetic fields. ... The Nobel Prizes (Swedish: ), as designated in Alfred Nobels will in 1895, are awarded for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace. ... In the NATO phonetic alphabet, X-ray represents the letter X. An X-ray picture (radiograph) taken by Röntgen An X-ray is a form of electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength approximately in the range of 5 pm to 10 nanometers (corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 PHz... In modern physics the photon is the elementary particle responsible for electromagnetic phenomena. ... An early naval cannon design, allowing the gun to roll backwards a small distance when firing The recoil when firing a gun is the backward momentum of a gun, which is equal to the forward momentum of the bullet or shell, due to conservation of momentum. ... For other uses, see Electron (disambiguation). ... Walther Wilhelm Georg Bothe (January 8, 1891 – February 8, 1957) was a German physicist, mathematician, chemist, and Nobel Prize winner. ... Johannes (Hans) Wilhelm Geiger (September 30, 1882 – September 24, 1945) was a German physicist. ...

Arthur Holly Compton (1892-1962) on the cover of Time magazine, January 13, 1936.

Image File history File links This image is a TIME magazine cover. ... Image File history File links This image is a TIME magazine cover. ... “TIME” redirects here. ... January 13 is the 13th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Wartime activities

In 1941, along with Vannevar Bush, head of the wartime Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), and Ernest Lawrence, the inventor of the cyclotron, Compton helped to take over the then-stagnant American program to develop an atomic bomb. Compton was placed in charge of the OSRD's S-1 Committee charged with investigating the properties and manufacture of uranium. In 1942, Compton appointed Robert Oppenheimer as the Committee's top theorist. When the Committee's work was taken over by the Army in the summer of 1942, it became the Manhattan Project. For other uses, see 1941 (disambiguation). ... Vannevar Bush (March 11, 1890 – June 30, 1974) was an American engineer and science administrator, known for his political role in the development of the atomic bomb, and the idea of the memex—seen as a pioneering concept for the World Wide Web. ... In June of 1941, the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) superseded the committee structure [of the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC)]. The OSRD projects gave the United States and Allied troops more powerful and more accurate bombs, more reliable detonators, lighter and more accurate weapons, safer and more... Ernest O. Lawrence Ernest Orlando Lawrence (August 8, 1901 – August 27, 1958) was an American physicist and Nobel Laureate best known for his invention, utilization, and improvement of the cyclotron beginning in 1929, and his later work in uranium-isotope separation in the Manhattan Project. ... A pair of Dee electrodes with loops of coolant pipes on their surface at the Lawrence Hall of Science. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 km (11 mi) above the epicenter. ... The S-1 Uranium Committee was a Committee of the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) that superceded the Briggs Advisory Committee on Uranium and later grew into the Manhattan Project. ... General Name, symbol, number uranium, U, 92 Chemical series actinides Group, period, block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery gray metallic; corrodes to a spalling black oxide coat in air Standard atomic weight 238. ... J. Robert Oppenheimer[1] (April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist, best known for his role as the director of the Manhattan Project, the World War II effort to develop the first nuclear weapons, at the secret Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico. ... In mathematics, theory is used informally to refer to a body of knowledge about mathematics. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... This article is about the World War II nuclear project. ...

Immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Compton gained support for consolidating plutonium research at the University of Chicago and for an ambitious schedule that called for producing the first atomic bomb in January 1945, a goal that was missed by only six months. "Metallurgical Laboratory" or "Met Lab" was the "cover" name given to Compton's facility. Its objectives were to produce chain-reacting "piles" of uranium to convert to plutonium, find ways to separate the plutonium from the uranium and to design a bomb. In December 1942, underneath Chicago's Stagg Field, a team of Met Lab scientists directed by Enrico Fermi achieved a sustained chain reaction in the world's first nuclear reactor. Throughout the war, Compton would remain a prominent scientific advisor and administrator. This article is about the harbor in Hawaii. ... General Name, Symbol, Number plutonium, Pu, 94 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery white Standard atomic weight (244) g·mol−1 Electron configuration [Rn] 5f6 7s2 Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 24, 8, 2 Physical properties Phase solid Density (near r. ... The University of Chicago is a private university located principally in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. ... The Metallurgical Laboratory or Met Lab at the University of Chicago was part of the World War II–era Manhattan Project, created by the United States to develop an atomic bomb. ... A chain reaction is a sequence of reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions. ... Nickname: Motto: Urbs in Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location in the Chicago metro area and Illinois Coordinates: , Country State Counties Cook, DuPage Settled 1770s Incorporated March 4, 1837 Government  - Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Area  - City  234. ... Stagg Field was a stadium in Chicago, Illinois. ... Enrico Fermi (September 29, 1901 – November 28, 1954) was an Italian physicist most noted for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, particle physics and statistical mechanics. ... Core of a small nuclear reactor used for research. ...

Washington University

Compton returned to Washington University in St. Louis, where he had served as Head of the Department of Physics from 1920 to 1923, when he was inaugurated as the university's ninth Chancellor in 1946. “Washington University” redirects here. ...

During Compton's time as Chancellor, the university formally desegregated its undergraduate divisions in 1952, named its first female full professor, and enrolled a record number of students as wartime veterans returned to the United States. His reputation and connections in national scientific circles allowed him to recruit many nationally renowned scientific researchers to the university. Despite Compton's accomplishments, he was criticized then, and subsequently by historians, for moving slowly toward full racial integration, making Washington University the last major institution of higher learning in St. Louis to open its doors to African Americans. Year 1952 (MCMLII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nickname: Location in the state of Missouri Coordinates: , Country State County Independent City Government  - Mayor Francis G. Slay (D) Area  - City  66. ...

Compton resigned as Chancellor in 1953, but remained on the faculty until his retirement in 1961.

Legacy

Compton is buried in the Wooster Cemetery in Wooster, Ohio. Compton crater on the Moon is co-named for Arthur Compton and his brother Karl. The physics research building at Washington University in St Louis is named in his honor. The University of Chicago Residence Halls remembered Compton and his achievements by dedicating Compton House in his honor. Compton also has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. Compton is a prominent lunar crater that is located in the northern hemisphere on the far side of the Moon. ... This article is about Earths moon. ... Karl Taylor Compton (1887-1954) was a prominent American physicist and president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (1930-1948). ... The St. ...

The Arthur H. Compton House in Chicago is listed as a National Historic Landmark. The Arthur H. Compton House, in Chicago, Illinois, was the residence of professor Arthur Compton from the late 1920s until 1945. ... Nickname: Motto: Urbs in Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location in the Chicago metro area and Illinois Coordinates: , Country State Counties Cook, DuPage Settled 1770s Incorporated March 4, 1837 Government  - Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Area  - City  234. ... This article or section needs additional references or sources to improve its verifiability. ...

NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory was named in honor of Compton. The Compton effect is central to the gamma ray detection instruments aboard the observatory. This article is about the American space agency. ... Illustration of CGRO The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory(CGRO) was the second of the NASA Great Observatories to be launched to space, following the Hubble Space Telescope. ... This article is about electromagnetic radiation. ...

See also

• Schools : College of Wooster, Princeton University, University of Chicago, Washington University in St. Louis
• Physics : Timeline mechanics and physics
• Energy : Luminiferous aether, Radiant energy, Manhattan Project (Atomic energy)

The College of Wooster is a liberal arts college with fewer than 2000 students located in Wooster, Ohio, in Wayne County, Ohio. ... Princeton University is a private coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. ... The University of Chicago is a private university located principally in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. ... “Washington University” redirects here. ... Timeline of quantum mechanics, molecular physics, atomic physics, nuclear physics, and particle physics 440 BC Democritus speculates about fundamental indivisible particles---calls them atoms The beginning of the chemie 1766 Henry Cavendish discovers and studies hydrogen 1778 Carl Scheele and Antoine Lavoisier discover that air is composed mostly of nitrogen... The luminiferous aether: it was hypothesised that the Earth moves through a medium of aether that carries light In the late 19th century luminiferous aether (light-bearing aether) was the term used to describe a medium for the propagation of light. ... Radiant energy is the energy of electromagnetic waves. ... This article is about the World War II nuclear project. ... Atomic energy is an outdated phrase which can mean a number of things related to energy produced by atoms: In the late- 19th century through the early- 20th century, it was often used to describe the particles ejected by radioactive elements (especially radium). ...

Bibliography

• Compton, Arthur (1918). "American Physical Society address (Dec 1917)", Physical Review, Series II.
• Compton, Arthur (1923). "A Quantum Theory of the Scattering of X-Rays by Light Elements", Physical Review, 21(5), 483 – 502.
• Compton, Arthur (1940). The Human Meaning of Science, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
• Compton, Arthur (1956). Atomic Quest, New York: Oxford University Press.
• Compton, Arthur (1967). The Cosmos of Arthur Holly Compton, New York: Alfred A. Knopf; edited by Marjorie Johnston
• Compton, Arthur (1973). Scientific Papers of Arthur Holly Compton, Chicago: University of Chicago Press; edited by Robert S. Shankland.

External links

• Arthur Compton biographical entry at Washington University in Saint Louis
• Arthur Compton Annotated bibliography from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
• Arthur Compton at Find A Grave