Robert Vivian Pound (May 16, 1919 – April 12, 2010) was a Canadian-American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

who helped discover

nuclear magnetic resonance Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a physical phenomenon in which nuclei in a strong constant magnetic field are disturbed by a weak oscillating magnetic field (in the near field) and respond by producing an electromagnetic signal with a ...

(NMR) and who devised the famous Pound–Rebka experiment supporting general relativity. He became a tenured professor of physics at Harvard without ever having received a graduate degree. Pound was born in

Ridgeway, Ontario Ridgeway is a small, unincorporated village in Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada. The community is within the Niagara Regional Municipality. It used to be the seat of government for Bertie Township within Welland County. Ridgeway is now a part of the ...

. The discovery of NMR won the

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 ...

in 1952, though, due to the limitation on the number of recipients and the simultaneous achievements of

Felix Bloch Felix Bloch (; ; 23 October 1905 – 10 September 1983) was a Swiss-American physicist who shared the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physics with Edward Mills Purcell "for their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and di ...

'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", making Pound one of only two collaborators explicitly named in the speech. Pound received the

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...

in 1990 for his lifetime contributions to the field of physics. Pound was the Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics emeritus at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. He was a member of the class of 1941 at the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo (commonly referred to as UB, University at Buffalo, and sometimes SUNY Buffalo) is a public university, public research university in Buffalo, New York, Buffalo and Amherst, New York, United States. ...

. Pound's name is also attached to the

Pound–Drever–Hall technique The Pound–Drever–Hall (PDH) technique is a widely used and powerful approach for stabilizing the frequency of light emitted by a laser by means of feedback, locking to a stable cavity. The PDH technique has a broad range of applications includi ...

used to lock the frequency of a

laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word ''laser'' originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radi ...

on a stable

optical cavity An optical cavity, resonating cavity or optical resonator is an arrangement of mirrors or other optical elements that confines light waves similarly to how a cavity resonator confines microwaves. Optical cavities are a major component of lasers, ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pound, Robert American nuclear physicists National Medal of Science laureates Harvard University faculty 1919 births 2010 deaths Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the French Academy of Sciences Canadian emigrants to the United States University at Buffalo alumni