| Name: |
Robert Andrews Millikan |
| Birth Date: |
|
| Death Date: |
|
| Place of Birth: |
|
| Place of Death: |
|
| Nationality: |
|
| Gender: |
|
| Occupations: |
|
Robert A. Millikan vaulted from obscurity to international fame on the strength of his classic experiment designed to measure the charge on the electron. His "oil-drop" method for determining the electron charge earned him the 1923 Nobel Prize for physics. He solidified his role as a leader in American science by presiding over the rise of the California Institute of Technology into a world-famous center of scientific research.
Millikan was born March 22, 1868, the second of six children, to Silas Franklin Millikan and Mary Jane Andrews Millikan in Morrison, Illinois. His mother, a graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio, served as dean of women at Olivet College in Michigan before moving to Illinois, and his father later earned a degree at the Oberlin Theological Seminary and became a Congregational preacher. The family moved to Maquoketa, Iowa in 1875.
Millikan graduated with high marks from Maquoketa High School in 1886. Following in his parents' footsteps, he then entered the Oberlin college preparatory program, and then the college itself the next year.
This is a free page. This page contains 151 words. This
biography contains 1,988 words (approx. 7 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our Robert A. Millikan Access Pass.
