Noah Ernest Dorsey (March 15, 1873 – July 6, 1959) was an American physicist, known for his contributions to measurement technology.
Dorsey was born in
Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland. It is the county seat of Anne Arundel County and its only incorporated city. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east ...
and studied at
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
where he obtained a
B.A. (1893) and a
Ph.D. (1897). He worked at the same place a few years, was with U. S. Bureau of Soils and the Department of Agriculture as well, before he eventually joined
National Bureau of Standards
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 physical sc ...
(1903) where he stayed until retirement in 1943. His research was on standards of radioactivity and x-ray measurements (1914–22), becoming the leader of the Radium Section (1921) and publishing a widely used book covering this emerging field, including specifications of his own bodily injuries from interactions with radium and radon.
Dorsey died in
Towson, Maryland
Towson () is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 59,533 in the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Baltimore County and the second-most populous unincorpo ...
on July 6, 1959 at the age of 86.
Books
*''The Physics of Radioactivity'' (1921)
References
American physicists
People from Annapolis, Maryland
Johns Hopkins University alumni
Johns Hopkins University faculty
1873 births
1959 deaths
{{US-physicist-stub