Robert Andrews Millikan

In 1902, Robert Millikan married Greta Ervin Blanchard and the couple had three sons; Clark Blanchard ( born in 1903) who grew up to become a professor of aeronautics, Glenn Allan (born in 1906) who later became a physiologist, and Max Franklin (1913) who went on to become a CIA official.

He died of a heart attack at his residence in California on 19 December 1953, at the age of 85.

Robert Andrews Millikan was born on 22 March 1868 at Morrison, Illinois. He was the second child of congregational preacher, Reverend Silas Franklin Millikan, and his wife, Mary Jane Andrews. He had five siblings.

He completed his school education from Maquoketa High School at Iowa. After graduating from high school, he worked at a saw mill and as a stenographer at court for a brief period.

In 1887, he enrolled at Oberlin College to take a degree in Classics. His teachers realised his interest in Physics at this point and was offered an opportunity to teach physics to junior classes, which he readily took up post his graduation in 1891.

In 1893 he completed his master’s degree in Physics from Oberlin College, and in 1895 he received his doctorate in Physics from the Columbia University, for his thesis on the polarization of light emitted by incandescent surfaces - using for this purpose molten gold and silver at the U.S. Mint.

After completing his doctorate, on the advice of his teachers, he did a year of postgraduate study in Europe. In Paris he attended the lectures of French physicist and engineer Henri Poincaré, while in Germany, he studied with Max Planck, Walter Nernst, and Felix Klein.

In 1896, Robert Andrews Millikan began his career by working as an assistant in Physics at the University of Chicago. He worked under physicist A. A. Michelson at the Ryerson Laboratory.

Alongside work, he also authored or co-authored several books on the subject. These include: ‘A College Course in Physics’ with S.W. Stratton (1898), ‘Mechanics, Molecular Physics, and Heat’ (1902), ‘First Course in Physics’ (1906) with H.G. Gale etc.

In 1907 he was promoted to Associate professor and he became professor in 1910. He remained in the position till 1921.

In Physics, his fields of interest were electricity, molecular physics and optics. Among his initial major successes was the accurate determination of the charge carried by an electron in 1910, which was determined using the ‘falling drop method’. He further proved that the value was constant for all electrons, thereby showcasing the atomic structure of electricity.

Between the years 1912 and 1915, his next endeavour was the research on photoelectric effect. As part of his analysis he verified Albert Einstein’s photoelectric equation, and subsequently determined the value of the Planck's constant ‘h’ with the use of photoelectric emission graphs of various metals.

Robert Andrews Millikan was a renowned physicist whose most important contributions to science include determination of charge of the electron, understanding the ‘Photoelectric effect’ and his studies involving ‘cosmic rays’.