Carl D. Anderson
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Carl David Anderson
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1936
Born: 3 September 1905, New York, NY, USA
Died: 11 January 1991, San Marino, CA, USA
Affiliation at the time of the award: California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, CA, USA
Prize motivation: “for his discovery of the positron”
Prize share: 1/2
Work
In developing quantum mechanical theory, Dirac predicted that all matter has a kind of mirror image—antimatter. A particle and its antiparticle, if charged, should have opposite charges. By studying the tracks of cosmic ray particles in a cloud chamber, in 1932 Carl Anderson discovered a positively-charged particle with a mass seemingly equal to that of an electron. Anderson’s particle was the first antiparticle proven by experiment and was named a “positron”.
Nobel Prizes and laureates
Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.
See them all presented here.
