Arthur Compton
- Born: September 10, 1892 (Wooster, Ohio)
- Died: March 15, 1962 (Berkeley, California)
Education
- 1913: BS, College of Wooster
- 1914: AM, Princeton University (Physics)
- 1916: PhD, Princeton University (Physics)
Major Positions
- 1916–1917: University of Minnesota, Instructor in Physics
- 1917–1919: Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, Research Engineer, Westinghouse Lamp Company
- 1919–1920: Cambridge University, NRC Fellow
- 1920–1923: Washington University, St. Louis, Wayman Crow Professor of Physics
- 1923–1929: University of Chicago, Professor of Physics
- 1929–1945: University of Chicago, Swift Distinguished Service Professor
- 1945–1953: Washington University, St. Louis, Chancellor
- 1954–1961: Washington University, St. Louis, Distinguished Service Professor of Natural Philosophy
Other Positions
- 1920–1923: Washington University, St. Louis, Head, Department of Physics
- 1931–1934: World Survey of Cosmic Rays, Director
- 1934–1934: American Physical Society, President
- 1942–1942: American Association for the Advancement of Science, President
- 1942–1945: Manhattan Project, Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory, Project Leader
Selected Part-Time Positions
- 1931–1941: Research Associate, Carnegie Institution of Washington
- 1937–1944: Member, National Advisory Cancer Council
- 1939–1945: Member, Board of Trustees, Crerar Library, Chicago
- 1941–1941: Chair, Advisory Committee on Uranium Research, National Academy of Sciences
- 1941–1942: Program Chief, S-1 Uranium Section, Office of Scientific Research and Development
- 1941–1945: Member, Board of Trustees, Chicago Museum of Science and Industry
- 1942–1946: Member, Executive Committee, Section S-1, Office of Scientific Research and Development
- 1956–1959: Member, Board of Trustees, Brookings Institution
Selected Awards and Honors
Archival Resources
Arthur Holly Compton Personal Papers, Washington University Libraries, Department
of Special Collections, St. Louis, Missouri
Online Finding Aid
Records of Arthur Holly Compton, Office of the Chancellor, Washington University Libraries, Department of Special Collections, St. Louis, Missouri
Papers Relating to Arthur Holly Compton, University of Chicago, Regenstein Library, Department of Special Collections, Chicago, Illinois
Resources on the Web
Published Resources
Samuel K. Allison, "Arthur Holly Compton: 1892-1962", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences
Arthur Holly Compton, Atomic Quest, A Personal Narrative (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956)
Roger H. Stewer, The Compton Effect: Turning Point in Physics (New York: Science History, 1975)
Roger H. Stewer, "On Compton's Research Program," in Essays in Memory of Imre Lakatos (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science 39), ed. R. S. Cohen et al. (Dordrecht: Reidel: 1976), 617-633
Hiroyuki Konno, "Duane, Compton, and the Quantum Theory," Kagakusi Kenkyu: Journal of History of Science, Japan 19 (1980): 24-34
Arturo Russo, "Marco Polo 1932 : le ricerche di A.H. Compton sui raggi cosmici," in Congresso nazionale di storia della fisica (Milan: CLUED: 1983), 229-235
Barton J. Bernstein, "Four Physicists and the Bomb: The Early Years, 1945-1950," Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 18 (1988): 231-263
Michelangelo De Maria and A. Russo, "Cosmic Ray Romancing: The Discovery of the Latitude Effect and the Compton-Millikan Controversy," Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 19 (1989): 211-266
Stephen G. Brush, "How Ideas Became Knowledge: The Light Quantum Hypothesis, 1905-1935," Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 37 (2007): 204-246
