Norman Foster Ramsey Jr. Biography

Norman F. Ramsey was a Nobel Prize winning American physicist who developed a precise method to probe the structure of atoms and molecules and used it to devise a remarkably exact way to keep time. He was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics, along with Hans G. Dehmelt from University of Washington, for the invention of the separated oscillatory field method, which had important applications in the construction of atomic clocks. Norman Ramsey was a towering figure in the world of physics during the second half of the 20th century. He was admired for his scientific accomplishments, his service as a statesman of science, his role as a teacher and mentor, and the friendships he shared with people of all ranks around the world. His life and career spanned almost a century. The technologies that sprung from his work touch the lives of billions today. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), a mainstay of medical diagnostics technology, and the Atomic Clock, which makes Global Positioning System (GPS) possible, are among the technologies derived from the experimental techniques that Ramsey developed. A physics professor at Harvard University for most of his career, Ramsey also held several posts with such government and international agencies as NATO and the United States Atomic Energy Commission.