Albert A. (Albert Abraham) Michelson

Born in Strelno, Prussia, in 1852, Albert Abraham Michelson came to the United States as a small child and grew up in the American West. He studied at the U.S. Naval Academy, later taught physics there, and went on to build a career around exact measurement and optical experiments.

Michelson is most closely associated with his increasingly precise measurements of the speed of light and with the Michelson–Morley experiment, carried out with Edward W. Morley. His work made him one of the leading experimental physicists of his time, and in 1907 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics, the first American awarded a Nobel in a scientific field.

He later held major academic posts, including at the University of Chicago, and remained deeply interested in light, spectroscopy, and measurement standards throughout his life. He died in Pasadena, California, in 1931, leaving behind a name that still appears across physics textbooks, instruments, and experiments.