Earlier this month, Case Western Reserve University hosted several Nobel Prize winners for The Standard Model at 50 Years symposium. Did you know there are 16 Nobel Prize winners who are affiliated with Case Western Reserve? In recognition of their contributions to their respective fields, we will highlight CWRU’s Nobel Prize winners throughout June.
Albert Michelson was the first American scientist to win a Nobel Prize in the sciences, receiving the award for physics in 1907. He also was the first individual with an affiliation to Case Western Reserve (he was a former professor of physics at the Case School of Applied Science) to receive a Nobel Prize. He was selected “for his optical precision instruments and the spectroscopic and metrological investigations carried out with their aid.”
Case Western Reserve has had three other scientists receive the Nobel Prize for Physics.
Polykarp Kusch won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1955 “for his precision determination of the magnetic moment of the electron.” Kusch studied at the Case Institute of Technology, earning his bachelor’s degree in physics in 1931.
In 1960, alumnus Donald A. Glaser received the Nobel Prize in Physics “for the invention of the bubble chamber,” an instrument that allowed scientists to observe the actions of high-energy beams from an accelerator. Glaser earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from Case School of Applied Science in 1946.
Frederick Reines, a former professor and chair of the Department of Physics, had his work recognized with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1995. His award was “for the detection of the neutrino.”
Follow The Daily in June to learn more about Case Western Reserve University’s Nobel Prize winners.