Polykarp Kusch (1911–93)

Born on 26 January 1911 in Blankenburg, Germany, Polykarp Kusch was a Nobel laureate who measured the electron’s magnetic moment and found it did not match with theoretical predictions. Kusch received his PhD in physics from the University of Illinois in 1936. He spent much of his career at Columbia University and the University of Texas at Dallas. At Columbia he researched the magnetic properties of atomic beams with Isidor I. Rabi . During that work Kusch discovered that the electron’s magnetic moment was greater than its theoretical value. Those measurements and others of the electron’s magnetic properties led to improvements in quantum electrodynamics, the theory that dictates the interaction of charged particles with electromagnetic fields. Kusch earned one half of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Physics for his efforts; Willis Eugene Lamb won the other half for his work on the spectrum of hydrogen. Kusch later explored chemical physics and science education before his death in 1993 . (Photo credit: Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, courtesy of AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives)

Date in History: 26 January 1911