Some leaders of the A. I. E. E.

Robert Andrew Millikan, Director of the Norman Bridge Laboratory of Physics of the California Institute of Technology, Edison Medalist for 1922 and one of the best known physicists of the country, was born at Morrison, Illinois, March 22, 1868. He was granted his A. B. from Oberlin College in 1891, and his Ph. D. from Columbia in 1895. In the years 1895–96, he attended the universities of Berlin and Göttingen. Oberlin awarded him the Sc. D. in 1911; the Northwestern University granted him like degree in 1913; University of Pennsylvania, in 1915; Columbia University and Amherst College in 1917, and the University of Dublin in 1924. He was also awarded an LL.D. degree from the University of California in 1924, and from Yale in 1925; in 1926, a Ph. D. degree from the King John Casimir University of Poland. From 1891 to 1893 he tutored in physics at Oberlin. In 1896 he became assistant in physics at the University of Chicago, from which he rose to assistant professor in 1902; 1906–10 he was associate professor, when he was chosen professor of physics at the University of Chicago. In all this work of instruction, he evidenced rare ability to impart his own extraordinary scientific knowledge to those with whom he was working as well as applying it significantly to problems of research; in fact, Doctor Millikan was one of the initiators of the National Research Council — a development which has proved its worth innumerably. It has ever been Doctor Millikan´s contention that “the way men think is the most important and most practical thing in human progress” and since the days of his own early training, it has been his unceasing ambition to teach men to think. The cognomen “producer of men” has been aptly bestowed upon him, for his efforts have been untiringly loyal to the cause of scientific progress. He has been an inspiration to others, especially to the young men, who look up to him for advice from a clea- thinker with high ideals, scientific wisdom, great humanity and absolute intellectual integrity. His is the ability to stimulate in individuals an almost superhuman activity, which, in conjunction with his many other creditable characteristics, has made his field of achievement practically unlimited.