Books By Karl Taylor Compton - Author

Karl Taylor Compton, 1887-1954, B.S. 1908, M.S. 1909, College of Wooster; Ph.D. in physics, 1912, Princeton University, was president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1930 to 1948, then chairman of the Corporation until his death in 1954. He taught physics at Reed College, then at Princeton University, where he also was director of research at the Palmer Laboratory and chairman of the Physics Department. His areas of research included the passage of photoelectrons through metals, ionization and the motion of electrons in gases, the phenomena of fluorescence, the theory of the electric arc, and collisions of electrons and atoms. In World War I he was assigned to the American Embassy in Paris as an associate scientific attache. At MIT Compton transformed both the administrative and academic structure, strengthened the scientific curriculum, and developed a new approach to education in science and engineering. He served as chairman of the Section of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences, 1