bibliography
NNDB
This is a beta version of NNDB
Search: for

Ernest Fox Nichols

Born: 1-Jun-1869
Birthplace: Leavenworth, KS
Died: 29-Apr-1924
Location of death: Washington, DC
Cause of death: Heart Failure

Gender: Male
Religion: Anglican/Episcopalian
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Physicist, Administrator

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Infrared radiation

In 1903, physicist Ernest Fox Nichols studied the absorption of infrared radiation, and showed that light exerts a minute but measurable pressure on objects, a principle of great importance to astrophysicists. He improved the design and function of the radiometer, a device for measuring stellar radiation, and in 1913 he founded Physical Review, the journal of the American Physical Society. He served as President of Dartmouth College, and later as President of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He died at the 1924 meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, suffering a heart attack while delivering an address on the relation between infrared and electric wave spectra.

Father: Alonzo Curtis Nichols (photographer, b. 7-Nov-1824, d. 4-Aug-1884)
Mother: Sophronia Fox Nichols (b. 9-Mar-1829, m. 1-Jan-1861, d. 3-Mar-1882)
Brother: Charles Nichols (b. 19-Sep-1861, d. infancy)
Brother: Arthur Lon Nichols (newspaper publisher, b. 28-Jun-1865, d. Feb-1937)
Wife: Katharine Williams West Nichols (b. 4-Apr-1864, m. 16-Jun-1894, d. 10-Feb-1950, one daughter)
Daughter: Esther Katharine Nichols (b. 5-May-1895, d. 13-Jul-1980)

    University: BS, Kansas State University (1888)
    Teacher: Chemistry, Kansas State University (1888-89)
    University: MS Physics, Cornell University (1893)
    University: PhD Physics, Cornell University (1897)
    Scholar: University of Berlin
    Scholar: Cambridge University
    Professor: Physics, Colgate University (1892-98)
    Professor: Physics, Dartmouth College (1898-1903)
    Professor: Physics, Columbia University (1903-09)
    Administrator: President, Dartmouth College (1909-16)
    Professor: Physics, Yale University (1916-21)
    Administrator: President, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1921-22)

    Rumford Prize 1905
    American Association for the Advancement of Science Vice President (1903)
    American Academy of Arts and Sciences
    American Philosophical Society
    National Academy of Sciences 1908
    Physical Review Founder & Editor (1893-1913)
    English Ancestry
    Scottish Ancestry


New!
NNDB MAPPER
Create a map starting with Ernest Fox Nichols
Requires Flash 7+ and Javascript.

Do you know something we don't?
Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile



Copyright ©2019 Soylent Communications