View source for Robert Woodrow Wilson

{{Short description|American astronomer (born 1936)}}
{{redirect|Robert W. Wilson|the  American hedge fund manager and philanthropist|Robert W. Wilson (philanthropist)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Robert Woodrow Wilson
| image             = Robert W. Wilson.jpg
| image_size        = 
| caption           = Wilson in 2023
| birth_date        = {{birth date and age|1936|1|10}}
| birth_place       = [[Houston, Texas]], U.S.
| death_date        = 
| death_place       = 
| field             = [[Physics]]
| alma_mater        = [[Rice University]]<br />[[California Institute of Technology]]
| work_institution  = Bell Laboratories <br/> Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
| doctoral_advisor  = 
| doctoral_students = 
| known_for         = [[Cosmic microwave background radiation]]
| spouse            = {{marriage|Elizabeth Rhoads Sawin|1958}}
| prizes            = {{nowrap|[[Henry Draper Medal]] (1977)<br />[[Nobel Prize in Physics]] (1978)}}
}}
{{Cosmology|scientists}}
'''Robert Woodrow Wilson''' (born January 10, 1936) is an American [[astronomer]] who, along with [[Arno Allan Penzias]], discovered [[cosmic microwave background radiation]] (CMB) in 1964.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.space.com/25945-cosmic-microwave-background-discovery-50th-anniversary.html|title=Cosmic Anniversary: 'Big Bang Echo' Discovered 50 Years Ago Today|last=May 2014|first=Mike Wall 20|website=Space.com|date=May 20, 2014|access-date=March 13, 2020}}</ref> The pair won the 1978 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] for its discovery.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1978/summary/|title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1978|website=NobelPrize.org|access-date=March 13, 2020}}</ref>

While doing tests and experiments with the [[Holmdel Horn Antenna]] at [[Bell Labs]] in [[Holmdel Township, New Jersey]], Wilson and Penzias discovered a source of noise in the atmosphere that they could not explain.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Penzias|first1 = A.A.|last2 = Wilson|first2=R.W.|title=A Measurement of Excess Antenna Temperature at 4080 Mc/s|journal=[[Astrophysical Journal]]|volume=142|pages=419–421|date=1965|doi=10.1086/148307|bibcode=1965ApJ...142..419P|doi-access=free}}</ref> 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]] 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.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Wilson|first1 = R.W.|last2 = Jefferts|first2=K.B.|last3=Penzias|first3=A.A.|title=Carbon Monoxide in the Orion Nebula|journal=[[Astrophysical Journal]]|volume=161|pages=L43–L44|date=1970|doi=10.1086/180567|bibcode=1970ApJ...161L..43W|doi-access=free}}</ref> Subsequently, [[Carbon monoxide#Astronomy|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 [[Submillimetre astronomy|submillimeter astronomy]].

==Life and work==
[[File:Horn Antenna-in Holmdel, New Jersey - restoration1.jpg|thumb|left|Penzias and Wilson stand at the 15 meter [[Holmdel Horn Antenna]] that brought their most notable discovery]]

Robert Woodrow Wilson was born on January 10, 1936, in Houston, Texas. He graduated from [[Lamar High School (Houston)|Lamar High School]] in River Oaks, in [[Houston]],<ref name="HISDAlumni">"[http://www.houstonisd.org/HISDConnectDS/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=c3783acb02efc010VgnVCM10000052147fa6RCRD Distinguished HISD Alumni] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206123543/http://www.houstonisd.org/HISDConnectDS/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=c3783acb02efc010VgnVCM10000052147fa6RCRD |date=February 6, 2012 }}," ''[[Houston Independent School District]]''</ref> and studied as an undergraduate at [[Rice University]], also in Houston, where he was inducted into the [[Phi Beta Kappa]] society. He then earned a PhD in physics at [[California Institute of Technology]]. His thesis advisors at Caltech included [[John Gatenby Bolton|John Bolton]]<ref name="nobelprize-bio"/> and [[Maarten Schmidt]].<ref name="nobelprize-bio">{{cite web 
| title         = Robert Woodrow Wilson / Biographical 
| url           = https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1978/wilson/biographical/ 
| quote         = My thesis project was to have been hydrogen-line interferometry, but when the first plans for a local oscillator system didn’t work out, I used the galactic survey as the basis for my thesis. [[John Gatenby Bolton|John Bolton]] returned to Australia before I completed my Ph.D. [[Maarten Schmidt]], who had previously done galactic research and was currently working on quasars, saw me through the last months of thesis work. I remained at Caltech for an additional year as a postdoctoral fellow to finish several projects in which I was involved. 
}}</ref>

Wilson and Penzias also won the [[Henry Draper Medal]] of the [[National Academy of Sciences]] in 1977.<ref name=Draper>{{cite web|title=Henry Draper Medal|url=http://www.nasonline.org/about-nas/awards/henry-draper-medal.html|publisher=[[National Academy of Sciences]]|access-date=February 24, 2011}}</ref> Wilson received the Golden Plate Award of the [[Academy of Achievement|American Academy of Achievement]] in 1987.<ref>{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=[[American Academy of Achievement]]|url=https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration}}</ref>

Wilson remained at Bell Laboratories until 1994, when he was named a senior scientist at the [[Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics|Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics]] in Cambridge, Massachusetts.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fofweb.com/History/MainPrintPage.asp?iPin=AS0290&DataType=AmericanHistory&WinType=Free |title=Facts on File History Database Center |access-date=April 2, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407073319/http://www.fofweb.com/History/MainPrintPage.asp?iPin=AS0290&DataType=AmericanHistory&WinType=Free |archive-date=April 7, 2014 }}</ref>

Wilson has been a resident of [[Holmdel Township, New Jersey]].<ref>Nobel Lectures, Physics 1971–1980, Editor Stig Lundqvist, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1992. {{Nobelprize|name=Autobiography}}. Accessed March 15, 2011. "We still live in the house in Holmdel which we bought when I first came to Bell Laboratories."</ref>

Wilson married Elizabeth Rhoads Sawin<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1978/wilson-bio.html|title=Robert Woodrow Wilson - Biographical|website=www.nobelprize.org|access-date=June 7, 2016}}</ref> in 1958.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/938/000099641/|title=Robert Woodrow Wilson|website=www.nndb.com|access-date=June 7, 2016}}</ref>

Wilson is one of the 20 American recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics to sign a letter addressed to President [[George W. Bush]] 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 [[United States Department of Energy|Department of Energy]]'s [[Office of Science]], the [[National Science Foundation]], and the [[National Institute of Standards and Technology]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=A Letter from America's Physics Nobel Laureates|url=https://fire.pppl.gov/nobel_bush_fy08_050808.pdf}}</ref>

Wilson was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 2009.<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Robert+W.+Wilson&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-04-23|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120206123543/http://www.houstonisd.org/HISDConnectDS/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=c3783acb02efc010VgnVCM10000052147fa6RCRD "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==
* {{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, December 8, 1978 ''The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation''
* {{imdb name|7735436}}
* {{discogs artist|Robert Wilson (29)}}

{{Nobel Prize in Physics Laureates 1976-2000}}
{{1978 Nobel Prize winners}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Robert Woodrow}}
[[Category:1936 births]]
[[Category:American astronomers]]
[[Category:American Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:21st-century American physicists]]
[[Category:Lamar High School (Houston) alumni]]
[[Category:California Institute of Technology alumni]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Physics]]
[[Category:People from Holmdel Township, New Jersey]]
[[Category:Rice University alumni]]
[[Category:Scientists at Bell Labs]]
[[Category:Radio astronomers]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:Radiophysicists]]