Arthur Compton (1892–1962) was an American physicist whose experiments fundamentally confirmed the particle nature of light. As a National Research Council Fellow, he spent a year at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, where he worked alongside luminaries such as J.J. Thomson and Ernest Rutherford. He conducted critical research into gamma-ray scattering, a foundation for what became the Compton effect.
He shared the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the Compton effect, demonstrating that photons have momentum, solidifying the concept of wave–particle duality. Compton also made pioneering contributions to cosmic-ray physics, leading to large-scale global expeditions that confirmed cosmic rays are charged particles.
During World War II, Compton directed the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago, where the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction took place (Chicago Pile1) as part of the Manhattan Project. Following the war, he served as Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis, guiding its postwar expansion and desegregation efforts.
A respected educator and scientific leader, he served as president of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and his influential textbooks and lectures shaped generations of physicists. Learn more.