Arthur Ashkin facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Arthur Ashkin
|
|
|---|---|
.jpg)
Arthur Ashkin via video phone, December 2018
|
|
| Born | September 2, 1922 |
| Died | September 21, 2020 (aged 98) Rumson, New Jersey, U.S.
|
| Education |
|
| Known for | Optical tweezers |
| Awards | Nobel Prize in Physics (2018) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | A measurement of positron-electron scattering and electron-electron scattering (1952) |
| Doctoral advisor | William M. Woodward |
Arthur Ashkin (born September 2, 1922 – died September 21, 2020) was an American scientist. He worked at famous research places called Bell Laboratories and Lucent Technologies. Many people think of Ashkin as the inventor of "optical tweezers".
Optical tweezers are amazing tools that use laser light to hold and move tiny things. Because of this important invention, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018. He was 96 years old at the time, making him the oldest person to win a Nobel Prize until 2019. He lived in Rumson, New Jersey.
Ashkin started working on moving tiny particles with laser light in the late 1960s. This led to his invention of optical tweezers in 1986. He also helped create a way to trap atoms, molecules, and even living cells using light. This works because light can push on things, a force called radiation pressure.
Early Life and Family
Arthur Ashkin was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1922. His family came from a Ukrainian-Jewish background. His parents were Isadore and Anna Ashkin. He had two siblings, a brother named Julius Ashkin, who was also a physicist, and a sister named Ruth.
His father, Isadore, came to the United States from Odessa (which is now in Ukraine) when he was 18. Anna, his mother, also came from what is now Ukraine. Isadore became a U.S. citizen and ran a dental laboratory in New York City.
Ashkin met his wife, Aline, at Cornell University. They were married for over 60 years and had three children and five grandchildren. Aline was a chemistry teacher. Their son, Michael Ashkin, is an art professor at Cornell University.
Education
Arthur Ashkin finished high school at James Madison High School in Brooklyn in 1940. He then went to Columbia University. While studying there, he also worked as a technician. He helped build special devices called magnetrons for U.S. military radar systems during World War II.
He joined the U.S. Army reserves in 1945 but continued working at Columbia University. During this time, he was around several scientists who would later win the Nobel Prize.
Ashkin earned his first degree, a BS in physics, from Columbia University in 1947. After that, he went to Cornell University to study nuclear physics. This was when the Manhattan Project was happening, which was a secret project to build the first atomic bombs. Arthur's brother, Julius, was part of this project. At Cornell, Arthur met famous scientists like Hans Bethe and Richard Feynman.
He completed his advanced degree, a PhD, at Cornell University in 1952. After getting his PhD, he started working at Bell Labs. His supervisor from Columbia University, Sidney Millman, recommended him for the job.
Career
At Bell Labs, Arthur Ashkin first worked with microwave technology. Around 1960, he started focusing on laser research. He published many articles about his work on topics like nonlinear optics and optical fibers. He also helped discover the photorefractive effect in special crystals.
Ashkin was a respected member of many professional groups, like the Optical Society of America (OSA) and the American Physical Society (APS). He retired from Bell Labs in 1992 after working there for 40 years. During his career, he made many important contributions to experimental physics. He wrote many research papers and held 47 patents for his inventions.
He received several awards, including the Joseph F. Keithley Award For Advances in Measurement Science in 2003 and the Harvey Prize in 2004. He was also chosen to be a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1984 and the National Academy of Sciences in 1996. In 2013, he was added to the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Even after retiring, he continued to work on experiments in his home lab.
Besides optical tweezers, Ashkin is also known for his studies in how light changes materials and how light behaves in fibers. His work helped other scientists, like Steven Chu, who won a Nobel Prize in 1997 for cooling and trapping atoms.
Nobel Prize
On October 2, 2018, Arthur Ashkin was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. He received the prize for inventing "optical tweezers." These special laser tools can grab and move tiny things like particles, atoms, viruses, and even living cells. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said that using light to move physical objects was "an old dream of science fiction."
Ashkin received half of the Nobel Prize. The other half was shared by Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland. They won for their work on a laser technique called chirped-pulse amplification. This technique is now used in laser machining and helps doctors perform millions of corrective laser eye surgeries every year.
At 96 years old, Ashkin was the oldest person to win a Nobel Prize until John B. Goodenough received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019 at the age of 97. Arthur Ashkin passed away on September 21, 2020, when he was 98 years old.
See Also
In Spanish: Arthur Ashkin para niños
