Dennis Gabor

Facts

Dennis Gabor

Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.

Dennis Gabor
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1971

Born: 5 June 1900, Budapest, Hungary

Died: 8 February 1979, London, United Kingdom

Affiliation at the time of the award: Imperial College, London, United Kingdom

Prize motivation: “for his invention and development of the holographic method”

Prize share: 1/1

Work

During the 19th century photographic methods were developed that resulted in two-dimensional images. In 1951 Dennis Gabor discovered a way of producing images with the illusion of depth. The method was based on interference—interaction between light waves—and coherence—light waves aligned in phase with one another. Light falling on an object is captured on photographic film along with a reference beam that did not fall on the object. When only the reference beam falls on the developed film, the light is bent so that a reproduction with depth is produced.

To cite this section
MLA style: Dennis Gabor – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Sun. 22 Dec 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1971/gabor/facts/>

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