Karl Taylor Compton
Karl Taylor Compton (September 14, 1887 – June 22, 1954) was an American physicist and president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1930 to 1948.During World War II, Compton served in a many federal government leadership roles related to military technology, particularly the development of radar.He took hard labor jobs starting at age eleven to help pay for college, working carrying hods for construction projects, as a farm hand, mule skinner, a book canvasser, in tile and brick factories and surveyed the first mile of paved road in Ohio.In 1908, he graduated from Wooster cum laude with a bachelor of philosophy degree, then in 1909 his master's thesis A study of the Wehnelt electrolytic interrupter was published in Physical Review.After the Armistice of 1918, the end of World War I, Compton returned home to Princeton, his wife and three-year-old daughter Mary Evelyn.During his decade at Princeton, over one hundred papers were published in his name in thermionic effects, ultraviolet spectroscopy, and electron physics.During a fellowship year at the University of Göttingen, Compton met the coterie of young American physicists working under Max Born, including the father of the Manhattan Project, J. Robert Oppenheimer.A year later, Karl Compton's thesis advisor Owen Richardson was also awarded the Nobel in physics, for work on thermionic effects.Compton was a member of the NDRC and became head of the division responsible for assembling a group of academic and industrial engineers and scientists that would study primarily radar, fire control and thermal radiation.[11] In 1945, Compton was selected as one of eight members of the Interim Committee appointed to advise President Harry S. Truman on the use of the atomic bomb.in which he argues that the dropping the bomb saved hundreds of thousands of lives; President Harry S Truman responded in agreement.
Massachusetts Institute of TechnologySamuel Wesley StrattonJames Rhyne KillianWoosterNew York CityNew YorkArthur ComptonWilson Martindale ComptonCollege of WoosterPrinceton UniversityPhysicsReed CollegeThesisDoctoral advisorOwen Willans RichardsonHenry DeWolf SmythJohn Quincy StewartCarl Henry EckartRao/Yao YutaiPhilip M. MorseWayne B. Nottinghamnuclear physicsVannevar BushAlsatianHessianMennoniteNobel Prize-winningOtsego LakeMichiganWooster Universitycum laudeWehneltPhysical Reviewphotoelectric effectsumma cum laudePortland, OregonGeneral Electric CorporationSignal Corpsscience attachéArmisticeWorld War IPalmer Laboratoryelectronicsspectroscopyphotoelectronsionizationelectronsfluorescenceelectric arcabsorptionemissionspectramercuryAmerican Philosophical SocietyNational Academy of SciencesAmerican Physical SocietyOptical Society of AmericaAmerican Chemical SocietyFranklin InstituteUniversity of GöttingenManhattan ProjectJ. Robert OppenheimerA. A. MichelsonNobel Prize in PhysicsCompton effectCyrus Fogg Brackett professorMIT CorporationengineeringscienceGreat DepressionAmericaeconomicSociety for the Promotion of Engineering EducationAmerican Institute of PhysicsRooseveltWorld War IINational Defense Research Committeefire controlthermal radiationOffice of Scientific Research and DevelopmentUnited Kingdomsynthetic rubberInterim CommitteeHarry S. Trumanatomic bombAtlantic magazineHarry S TrumanNaval Research Advisory CommitteeRumford PrizeAmerican Academy of Arts and SciencesPresidential Medal for MeritPublic Welfare MedalWashington AwardWestern Society of EngineersMost Excellent Order of the British EmpireRoyal Norwegian Order of St. OlavLamme MedalAmerican Society for Engineering EducationHoover MedalAmerican Institute of Electrical EngineersAmerican Society of Mechanical EngineersAmerican Institute of Mining and Metallurgical EngineersAmerican Society of Civil EngineersWilliam Procter Prize for Scientific AchievementScientific Research Society of AmericaFrench Legion of HonorDickinson CollegeComptonBibcodeProQuestWayback MachineChair of the Research and Development BoardPresidents of the Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyWilliam Barton RogersJohn Daniel RunkleFrancis Amasa WalkerJames CraftsHenry Smith PritchettArthur Amos NoyesRichard Cockburn MaclaurinElihu ThomsonErnest Fox NicholsJulius Adams StrattonHoward Wesley JohnsonJerome WiesnerPaul E. Gray