Arthur Gordon Webster
| Arthur Webster | |
|---|---|
Arthur Gordon Webster
|
|
| Born |
November 28, 1863 Brookline, Massachusetts |
| Died | May 15, 1923 (aged 59) Worcester, Massachusetts |
| Residence | U.S. |
| Nationality | the United States |
| Fields | Physicist |
| Institutions | Clark University |
| Alma mater |
Harvard College University of Berlin |
| Thesis | Versuche über eine Methode zur Bestimmung des Verhältnisses der elektromagnetischen zur elektrostatischen Einheit der Elektricität (1890) |
| Doctoral advisor | Hermann von Helmholtz |
| Doctoral students |
Robert Goddard Albert Potter Wills |
| Known for |
Acoustics Ballistics |
| Notable awards | Elihu Thomson prize (1895) |
Arthur Gordon Webster (November 28, 1863 – May 15, 1923), physicist, was a founder and president of the American Physical Society.
Arthur Gordon Webster was born on 28 November 1863 at Brookline, Massachusetts to William Edward Webster and Mary Shannon Davis. On 8 October 1889 he married Elizabeth Munroe Townsend, daughter of Captain Robert Townsend and Harriett Munro of Albany, New York.
Webster had graduated from Harvard College in 1885 at the top of his class and had stayed for a year as instructor in mathematics and physics. At the end of that year he went to the University of Berlin where he studied for four years with Hermann von Helmholtz, receiving his PhD in 1890. Helmholtz is said to have considered Webster his favorite American student. During this period Webster also studied in Paris and . He was unusually proficient in literature and was fluent in Latin, Greek, German, French, and Swedish, with a good knowledge of Italian and Spanish and competency in Russian and modern Greek.
Clark University president G. Stanley Hall appointed Webster assistant professor and head of the Physical Laboratories in 1892, when physicist Albert A. Michelson left for the newly organized University of Chicago. At that time, only Johns Hopkins University and Clark University had doctoral programs in physics. Webster was promoted to full professor in 1900.
Webster was unusual for his time in that he was both a proficient mathematician as well as a competent experimentalist.
Webster's research was in the field of acoustics and mechanics. He is credited with developing an instrument to measure the absolute intensity of sound (the phonometer) and for research on the gyroscope. He also gave graduate lectures in theoretical physics at Clark University, which have been published as three textbooks.
...
Wikipedia