Dicke, Robert Henry

Born Saint Louis, Missouri, USA, 6 May 1916

Died Princeton, New Jersey, USA, 4 March 1997

American experimental physicist Robert Dicke invented the microwave radiometer and lock-in amplifier that bear his name and that made possible the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation; he also carried out a number of experiments clarifying the properties of gravitation on terrestrial and astronomical scales.

Dicke was the son of a patent attorney. He grew up in Rochester, New York, where he began undergraduate studies at the University of Rochester, and got a transfer to Princeton University (where he published his first paper, modeling globular clusters as a gas of stars) to complete his bachelor’s degree in 1939. Dicke received a Ph.D. from the University of Rochester in 1941, for the work with Lee DuBridge in nuclear physics, and held honorary degrees from Edinburgh University, Rochester, Ohio, “Northern University,” and Princeton University.

Immediately upon receipt of his...