Robert Pound | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1919-05-16)May 16, 1919 Ridgeway, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | April 12, 2010(2010-04-12) (aged 90) |
| Alma mater | University at Buffalo(BA) |
| Known for | Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) Pound–Drever–Hall technique Pound-Rebka experiment |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | Harvard University |
| Doctoral students | Glen Rebka Neil S. Sullivan Michio Kaku |
Robert Vivian Pound (May 16, 1919 – April 12, 2010)[1] was a Canadian-American[2]physicist who helped discovernuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and who devised the famousPound–Rebka experiment supporting general relativity.[3] He became a tenured professor of physics at Harvard without ever having received a graduate degree.
Pound was born inRidgeway, Ontario.[4]
In 1946 Pound and collaboratorsEdward Purcell and Henry Torrey adapted theRad Lab techniques—widely used to this day in radar and communications—to detect nuclear magnetic resonance in condensed matter. Soon NMR became a standard analytical tool in chemistry, biology, and physics, and the "Pound box" marginal oscillator became the standard NMR detector.[5]
The discovery of NMR won theNobel Prize in Physics in 1952,[6] though, due to the limitation on the number of recipients and the simultaneous achievements ofFelix Bloch's group, only two recipients were designated. In his address to recipient Ed Purcell, Professor Hulthén nevertheless celebrated the "very interesting experiment you performed together with Dr. Pound",[7] making Pound one of only two collaborators explicitly named in the speech. Pound received theNational Medal of Science in 1990 for his lifetime contributions to the field of physics. Pound was the Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics emeritus atHarvard University.[4] He was a member of the class of 1941 at theUniversity at Buffalo.[4]
Pound's name is also attached to thePound–Drever–Hall technique used to lock the frequency of alaser on a stableoptical cavity.
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