Arthur Compton

He died on March 15 1962, at the age of 69, in Berkely, California. He died due to cerebral haemorrhage and was buried in the Wooster Cemetery, Ohio.

Moon’s ‘Compton Crater’ has been named after Arthur Compton and his brother Karl Compton.

Arthur Compton was born on September 10, 1892, in Wooster, Ohio, to Elias and Otelia. He was born into a family of academics. His father was a dean of the University of Wooster, while both his brothers, Karl and Wilton attended the Princeton University and earned PhDs from the University.

In his early years, Compton was more interested in astronomy; he photographed the Halley’s Comet in 1910.

In 1913, he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Science from the Wooster University. A year after his graduation, Compton earned his Master of Arts degree from Princeton University. He completed his PhD in Physics in 1916.

Arthur began his career in 1916–1917, as a physics instructor at the University of Minnesota. For the following two years he worked on the development of sodium lamps as a research engineer of the Westinghouse Lamp Company. During the First World War, Compton developed aircraft instrumentation for the Signal Corps.

In 1919, Compton was awarded one of the first two National Research Council Fellowships that allowed students to study abroad. He decided to go to Cambridge University’s Cavendish Laboratory, where he worked with George Paget Thomson, and studied X-ray scattering and Gamma Ray Absorption.

In 1920, he returned to the United States and was appointed as the Head of the Department of Physics at Washington University, St. Louis.

In 1922, he discovered the ‘Compton Effect’, which confirmed the dual nature of electromagnetic radiation as both a wave and a particle.

In 1923, Compton’s paper explaining X-Ray shifts was published in the Physical Review. The same year, he moved to the Chicago University as a Physics Professor.

The most remarkable work of Arthur Compton was the discovery of the Compton Effect in 1922. This discovery confirmed the dual nature of electromagnetic radiation as both a wave and a particle.

In 1942, he played a key role in Manhattan Project which led to the development of first nuclear weapons in the world.