Robert Woodrow Wilson (born January 10, 1936) is an American

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

who, along with Arno Allan Penzias, discovered

cosmic microwave background radiation The cosmic microwave background (CMB, CMBR), or relic radiation, is microwave radiation that fills all space in the observable universe. With a standard optical telescope, the background space between stars and galaxies is almost completely dar ...

(CMB) in 1964. The pair won the 1978

Nobel Prize in Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...

for its discovery. While doing tests and experiments with the Holmdel Horn Antenna at

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey, the compa ...

in Holmdel Township, New Jersey, Wilson and Penzias discovered a source of noise in the atmosphere that they could not explain. After removing all potential sources of noise, including pigeon droppings on the antenna, the noise was finally identified as CMB, which served as important corroboration of the

Big Bang The Big Bang is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models based on the Big Bang concept explain a broad range of phenomena, including th ...

theory. In 1970, Wilson led a team that made the first detection of a rotational spectral line of carbon monoxide (CO) in an astronomical object, the Orion Nebula, and eight other galactic sources. Subsequently, CO observations became the standard method of tracing cool molecular interstellar gas, and detection of CO was the foundational event for the fields of millimeter and submillimeter astronomy.

Life and work

Robert Woodrow Wilson was born on January 10, 1936, in Houston, Texas. He graduated from Lamar High School in River Oaks, in

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

,Distinguished HISD Alumni
," '' Houston Independent School District'' and studied as an undergraduate at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

, also in Houston, where he was inducted into the

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society. He then earned a PhD in physics at California Institute of Technology. His thesis advisors at Caltech included John Bolton and Maarten Schmidt. Wilson and Penzias also won the Henry Draper Medal of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

in 1977. Wilson received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1987. Wilson remained at Bell Laboratories until 1994, when he was named a senior scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Wilson has been a resident of Holmdel Township, New Jersey. Wilson married Elizabeth Rhoads Sawin in 1958. Wilson is one of the 20 American recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics to sign a letter addressed to President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

in May 2008, urging him to "reverse the damage done to basic science research in the Fiscal Year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Bill" by requesting additional emergency funding for the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

, and the

National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into Outline of p ...

. Wilson was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 2009.

References

Sources

"Distinguished HISD Alumni
, Houston Independent School District, Houston, Texas, 2008. * Cite Video , BBC/WGBH Boston , Nova #519 , A Whisper From Space , Copyright 1978 , Available With Permission , Consolidated Aircraft – Ronkonkoma, New York

External links

* including the Nobel Lecture, December 8, 1978 ''The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation'' * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Robert Woodrow 1936 births American astronomers American Nobel laureates 21st-century American physicists Lamar High School (Houston) alumni California Institute of Technology alumni Living people Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Nobel laureates in Physics People from Holmdel Township, New Jersey Rice University alumni Scientists at Bell Labs Radio astronomers Members of the American Philosophical Society