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Arno Allan Penzias
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Arno Allan Penzias | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | April 26, 1933 Munich, Germany |
| Nationality | American |
| Field | Physics |
| Institutions | Bell Labs |
| Alma mater | CCNY Columbia University |
| Known for | Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation |
| Notable prizes |  Nobel Prize in Physics (1978) |
Arno Allan Penzias (born April 26, 1933) is an American physicist and a co-winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize in physics.
Penzias was born in Munich, Germany. At age six he was among the Jewish children evacuated to Britain as part of the Kindertransport rescue operation. Six months later his parents also fled Nazi Germany for the U.S., and the family settled in the garment district of New York City in 1940. In 1946, Penzias became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He graduated Brooklyn Technical High School in 1951 and received a bachelor's degree from the City College of New York in 1954. From Columbia University, he received his Master's degree in 1958 and his Ph.D. in 1962.
He went on to work at Bell Labs in Holmdel, New Jersey where, with Robert Woodrow Wilson, he worked on ultra-sensitive cryogenic microwave receivers intended for radio astronomy observations. In 1964, on building their most sensitive antenna/receiver system, the pair encountered radio noise which they could not explain. It was far less energetic than the radiation given off by the Milky Way, and it was isotropic, so they assumed their instrument was subject to interference by terrestrial sources. They tried, and then rejected, the hypothesis that the radio noise emanated from New York City. An examination of the microwave horn antenna showed it was full of pigeon droppings (which Penzias described as "white dielectric material"). After the pair removed the guano buildup, and the pigeons were shot (each physicist says the other ordered the deed), the noise remained. Having rejected all sources of interference, the pair published a paper announcing their findings. This was later identified as the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), the radio remnant of the Big Bang. This allowed astronomers to confirm the Big Bang, and to correct many of their previous assumptions about it.
Penzias and Wilson received the 1978 Nobel Prize, sharing it with Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa (Kapitsa's work was unrelated to Penzias and Wilson's). The two had received the Henry Draper Medal the previous year.
Penzias has been a resident of Highland Park, New Jersey.[1] He currently serves as a venture partner at New Enterprise Associates.
- ^ Horner, Shirley. "ABOUT BOOKS", The New York Times, October 3, 1993]. Accessed December 19, 2007. "Previous recipients of the award, which has come to be known as the Michael, include Mary Higgins Clark of Saddle River, Belva Plain of Short Hills, Wende and Harry Devlin of Mountainside, the Nobel laureate Dr. Arno Penzias of Highland Park and Gay Talese of Ocean City."
| Persondata | |
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| NAME | Penzias, Arno Allan |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | American physicist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 26, 1933 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Munich, Germany |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
Categories: 1933 births | Living people | American astronomers | Columbia University alumni | Jewish American scientists | Naturalized citizens of the United States | Nobel laureates in Physics | Members and associates of the United States National Academy of Sciences | Scientists at Bell Labs | City University of New York people | People from Middlesex County, New Jersey | People from Munich