Robert Millikan
- Born: March 22, 1868 (Morrison, Illinois)
- Died: December 19, 1953 (San Marino, California)
Education
- 1891: AB, Oberlin College
- 1893: AM, Oberlin College
- 1895: PhD, Columbia University (Physics)
Major Positions
- 1896–1897: University of Chicago, Assistant in Physics
- 1897–1899: University of Chicago, Associate in Physics
- 1899–1902: University of Chicago, Instructor in Physics
- 1902–1907: University of Chicago, Assistant Professor of Physics
- 1907–1910: University of Chicago, Associate Professor of Physics
- 1910–1921: University of Chicago, Professor of Physics
- 1921–1945: California Institute of Technology, Chair, Executive Council
- 1945–1953: California Institute of Technology, Emeritus Professor of Physics
Other Positions
- 1916–1917: American Physical Society, President
- 1917–1919: United States Army, Chief, Science and Research Division, Signal Corps
- 1921–1945: California Institute of Technology, Director, Norman Bridge Laboratory of Physics
- 1929–1929: American Association for the Advancement of Science, President
Selected Part-Time Positions
- 1917–1917: Vice Chair, National Research Council
- 1903–1919: Associate Editor, Physical Review
- 1917–1917: Chair, Physical Sciences Division, National Academy of Sciences
- 1927–1953: Member, Executive Committee Board, National Academy of Sciences
- 1934–1934: Chair, Physical Sciences Division, National Academy of Sciences
- 1945–1953: Vice Chair, Board of Trustees, California Institute of Technology
Selected Awards and Honors
Archival Resources
California Institute of Technology, Institute Archives, Pasadena, California
Online Finding Aid
Resources on the Web
Published Resources
L. A. DuBridge and Paul S. Epstein, "Robert Andrews Millikan: 1868-1953", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences
David Goodstein, "In Defense of Robert Andrews Millikan," Engineering & Science No. 4 (2000): 30-38.
Robert A. Millikan, The Autobiography of Robert A. Millikan (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1950)
Robert H. Kargon, The Rise of Robert Millikan: Portrait of a Life in American Science (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982)
Judith R. Goodstein, Millikan's School: A History of the California Institute of Technology (New York: Norton, 1991)
Robert H. Kargon, "The Conservative Mode: Robert A. Millikan and the 20th-Century Revolution in Physics," Isis 68 (1977): 509-526
Robert H. Kargon, "Temple to Science: Cooperative Research and the Birth of the California Institute of Technology," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences 8 (1977): 3-31
Alfred Romer, "Robert A. Millikan, Physics Teacher," Physics Teacher 16 (1978): 78-75
Morris Bader, "The Nobel Prize of 1923," Journal of Chemical Education 55 (1978): 783
Daniel J. Kevles, "Physicists and the Revolt against Science in the 1930s," Physics Today 31 (1978): 23-30
Gerald Holton, "Subelectrons, Presuppositions, and the Millikan-Ehrenhaft Dispute," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences 9 (1978): 161-224
Daniel J. Kevles, "Robert A. Millikan," Scientific American 240 (1979): 142-151
Robert H. Kargon, "Birth Cries of the Elements: Theory and Experiment along Millikan's Route to Cosmic Rays," in Analytic Spirit: Essays in the History of Science in Honor of Henry Guerlac, ed. Harry Woolf (Ithaca: Cornell University Press: 1981), 309-325
Allan D. Franklin, "Millikan's Published and Unpublished Data on Oil Drops," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences 11 (1981): 185-201
W. M. Fairbank, Jr., and A. Franklin, "Did Millikan Observe Fractional Charges in Oil Drops," American Journal of Physics 50 (1982): 394-397
Peter Galison, "The Discovery of the Muon and the Failed Revolution against Quantum Electrodynamics," Centaurus 26 (1983): 262-316
Robert H. Kargon, "The Evolution of Matter: Nuclear Physics, Cosmic Rays, and Robert Millikan's Research Program," in Otto Hahn and the Rise of Nuclear Physics, ed. William R. Shea (Dordrecht: Reidel: 1983), 69-90
Michiko Goto, "R. A. Millikan's Verification for the Reality of the Elementary Electrical Charge (in Japanese)," Kagakusi Kenkyu: Journal of History of Science 27 (1988): 9-23
Michiko Goto, "R. A. Millikan's Determination of Elementary Electrical Charge (in Japanese)," Kagakusi Kenkyu: Journal of History of Science 27 (1988): 93-103, 152-165
J. L. Michel, "The Chicago Connection: Michelson and Millikan, 1894-1921," in The Michelson Era in American Science, 1870-1930, ed. Stanley Goldberg and Roger H. Stuewer (New York: American Institute of Physics: 1983)
Michelangelo De Maria and A. Russo, "Cosmic Ray Romancing: The Discovery of the Latitude Effect and the Compton-Millikan Controversy," Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 19 (1989): 211-266
M. De Maria, M. G. Ianniello, and A. Russo, "The Discovery of Cosmic Rays: Rivalries and Controversies between Europe and the United States," Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 22 (1991): 165-192
Hasok Chang, "Can Planck's Constant Be Measured with Classical Mechanics?," International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 11 (1997): 223-243
Gerald Holton, "R. A. Millikan's Struggle with Planck's Constant," Physics in Perspective 1 (1999): 231-237
Gerald Holton, "Millikan's Struggle with Theory," Europhysics News 31 (2000): 12-14
