Nobel Prize

Isidor Isaac Rabi was born in Raymanov, Austria, on July 29, 1898, the son of David Rabi and Janet Teig. He was brought to the United States by his family, in 1899, and his early education was in New York City (Manhattan and Brooklyn). In 1919 he graduated Bachelor of Chemistry at Cornell University (New…

William Shockley was born in London, England, on 13th February, 1910, the son of William Hillman Shockley, a mining engineer born in Massachusetts and his wife, Mary (née Bradford) who had also been engaged in mining, being a deputy mineral surveyor in Nevada. The family returned to the United States in 1913 and William Jr.…

My parents, Lewis Glashow and Bella née Rubin immigrated to New York City from Bobruisk in the early years of this century. Here they found the freedom and opportunity denied to Jews in Czarist Russia. After years of struggle, my father became a successful plumber, and his family could then enjoy the comforts of the…

New York City in the period of 1922 to 1979 provided the streets, schools, entertainment, culture and ethnic diversity for many future scientists. I was born in New York on July 15, 1922 of immigrant parents. My father, Morris, operated a hand laundry and venerated learning. Brother Paul, six years older, was a tinkerer of…

John Bardeen was born in Madison, Wisconsin, on May 23, 1908, son of Dr. Charles R. Bardeen, and Althea Harmer. Dr. Bardeen was Professor of Anatomy, and Dean of the Medical School of the University of Wisconsin at Madison. After the death of Althea, when John was about twelve years old, Dr. Bardeen married Ruth…

I was born in 1933 in New York City to Frederick and Eva Weinberg. My early inclination toward science received encouragement from my father, and by the time I was 15 or 16 my interests had focused on theoretical physics. I received my undergraduate degree from Cornell in 1954, and then went for a year…

Having been born in 1932, at the peak of the great depression, I grew up in difficult times. My parents worked extraordinarily hard to give us economic stability but at the same time they managed to instill in me two qualities which became the foundation of my personal and professional life. One is an unbounded…

Owen Willans Richardson was born on the 26th of April, 1879, at Dewsbury, Yorkshire, England, as the only son of Joshua Henry and Charlotte Maria Richardson. Educated at Batley Grammar School, he proceeded to Cambridge in 1897, having obtained an Entrance Major Scholarship at Trinity College; he gained First Class Honours in Natural Science at…

Walter H. Brattain was born in Amoy, China, on February 10, 1902, the son of Ross R. Brattain and Ottilie Houser. He spent his childhood and youth in the State of Washington and received a B.S. degree from Whitman College in 1924. He was awarded the M.A. degree by the University of Oregon in 1926…

I was born in Bad Kissingen (Franconia) in 1921. At that time my father, Ludwig, was 45 years old. He was one of twelve children of a rural ‘Viehhändler’ (small-time cattle dealer). Since the age of eighteen he had been cantor and religious teacher for the little Jewish community, a job he still held when…