Robert Andrews Millikan

Born in 1868 in Morrison, Illinois, Robert Andrews Millikan studied at Oberlin College and later earned his doctorate at Columbia University. He spent many years teaching at the University of Chicago, where he carried out the work that made him one of the best-known experimental physicists of his time.

Millikan is most closely associated with the oil-drop experiment, which measured the elementary electric charge, and with important research on the photoelectric effect. For this work, he received the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physics. His career joined careful laboratory work with a gift for explaining science to broader audiences.

Later, Millikan became a central figure at the California Institute of Technology, helping shape its rise as a major scientific institution. Alongside his research, he wrote and lectured widely, making him an influential voice in American science during the first half of the twentieth century.