Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Giedion, Sigfried

(Encyclopedia)Giedion, Sigfried zēkhˈfrēd gēˈdēôn [key], 1883–1968, Swiss historian of architecture. Giedion was a student of Heinrich Wölfflin and close associate of Walter Gropius. He was a key figure o...

Friedman, Jerome Isaac

(Encyclopedia)Friedman, Jerome Isaac frēdˈmən [key], 1930–, American physicist, b. Chicago, Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1956. A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Friedman won the 1990 Nobel P...

Mason, John, c.1600–1672, American colonial military commander

(Encyclopedia)Mason, John, c.1600–1672, American colonial military commander, b. England. He was an army officer before emigrating (c.1630) to Massachusetts and then (1635) to Windsor, Conn. When the Pequot threa...

Laughlin, Robert Betts

(Encyclopedia)Laughlin, Robert Betts, 1950–, American physicist, b. Visalia, Calif., Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1979. Laughlin was a researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 198...

Ketterle, Wolfgang

(Encyclopedia)Ketterle, Wolfgang, 1957–, German physicist, Ph.D. Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Garching, Germany, 1986. He has been a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1990. Kett...

Lowell, Percival

(Encyclopedia)Lowell, Percival, 1855–1916, American astronomer, b. Boston, grad. Harvard, 1876; brother of Abbott Lawrence Lowell and Amy Lowell. He visited Korea and Japan, where he acted as counselor and foreig...

Vonnoh, Bessie Potter

(Encyclopedia)Vonnoh, Bessie Potter vŏnˈō [key], 1872–1955, American sculptor, b. St. Louis, studied under Lorado Taft at the Art Institute of Chicago. She was Taft's assistant in his work for the World's Colu...

Szostak, Jack William

(Encyclopedia)Szostak, Jack William, 1952–, American molecular biologist, b. London, England, Ph.D. Cornell, 1977. Szostak has been a professor at Harvard Medical School and a researcher at Massachusetts General ...

Wiener, Norbert

(Encyclopedia)Wiener, Norbert, 1894–1964, American mathematician, educator, and founder of the field of cybernetics, b. Columbia, Mo., grad. Tufts College, 1909, Ph.D. Harvard, 1913. In 1920 he joined the faculty...

Warren, Mercy Otis

(Encyclopedia)Warren, Mercy Otis, 1728–1814, American writer, b. Barnstable, Mass.; sister of James Otis and wife of James Warren, who was speaker of the Massachusetts house of representatives. An ardent patriot,...