Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Pauling, Linus Carl

(Encyclopedia)Pauling, Linus Carl pôˈlĭng [key], 1901–94, American chemist, b. Portland, Oreg. He was one of the few recipients of two Nobel Prizes, winning the chemistry award in 1954 and the peace prize in 1...

Dalai Lama

(Encyclopedia)Dalai Lama däˈlī läˈmə [key] [Tibetan,=oceanic teacher], title of one of the main leaders of Tibetan Buddhism. Believed like his predecessors to be the incarnation of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesh...

Faust, Drew Gilpin

(Encyclopedia)Faust, Drew Gilpin (Catharine Drew Gilpin Faust), 1947–, American historian and educator, b. New York City, grad. Bryn Mawr (B.A. 1968), Univ. of Pennsylvania (M.A. 1971, Ph.D. 1975). A professor of...

Isthmian games

(Encyclopedia)Isthmian games ĭsˈmēən [key], athletic events organized c.581 b.c. They were held at Corinth in the spring of the first and third years of the Olympiad, and they honored Palaemon as well as Poseid...

Andrić, Ivo

(Encyclopedia)Andrić, Ivo ēˈvō änˈdrĭch [key], 1892–1975, Yugoslav novelist and poet, b. Bosnia. As a student Andrić worked for the independence and unity of the South Slavic peoples, and after the format...

Giaever, Ivar

(Encyclopedia)Giaever, Ivar, 1929–, Norwegian-American physicist, Ph.D. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1964. He was a researcher at General Electric from 1954 to 1988, when he joined the faculty at his alma ma...

Mourou, Gérard Albert

(Encyclopedia)Mourou, Gérard Albert, 1944–, French physicist, Ph.D. Pierre and Marie Curie Univ. (now part of Sorbonne Univ.), 1973. Mourou was a professor at the Univ. of Rochester, New York, from 1977 to 1988,...

Benét, Stephen Vincent

(Encyclopedia)Benét, Stephen Vincent bĕnāˈ [key], 1898–1943, American poet and author, b. Bethlehem, Pa., grad. Yale, 1919; brother of William Rose Benét. After graduating from college, Benét published seve...

Tu Youyou

(Encyclopedia)Tu Youyou, 1930–, Chinese pharmaceutical chemist, B.S. Peking Univ. School of Medicine, 1955. Tu has spent her entire career as a researcher at the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine in B...

Barber, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Barber, Samuel, 1910–81, American composer, b. West Chester, Pa. Barber studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia. His music is lyrical and generally tonal; his later works are more chr...