Arno Penzias
| Arno Allan Penzias | |
|---|---|
| Born |
April 26, 1933 Munich, Germany |
| Nationality | United States |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | Bell Labs |
| Alma mater |
City College of New York Columbia University |
| Known for | Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation |
| Notable awards | Henry Draper Medal (1977) Nobel Prize in Physics (1978) Harold Pender Award (1991) IRI Medal (1998) |
| Spouse | Anne Pearl Barras (m. 1954; 3 children) |
Arno Allan Penzias (born 26 April 1933) is an American physicist, radio astronomer and Nobel laureate in physics who is co-discoverer of the cosmic microwave background radiation, which helped establish the Big Bang theory of cosmology.
Penzias was born in Munich, Germany, the son of Justine (née Eisenreich) and Karl Penzias, who ran a leather business. At age six, he was among the Jewish children evacuated to Britain as part of the Kindertransport rescue operation. Some time later, his parents also fled Nazi Germany for the U.S., and the family settled in the Garment District of New York City in 1940. In 1946, Penzias became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1951 and after enrolling to study chemistry at the City College of New York, he changed majors and graduated 1954 with a degree in physics, ranked near the top of his class.
Following graduation, Penzias served for two years as a radar officer in the U.S Army Signal Corps. This led to a research assistantship in the Columbia University Radiation Laboratory, which was then heavily involved in microwave physics. Penzias worked under Charles Townes, who later invented the maser.
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