Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Kikwete, Jakaya Mrisho

(Encyclopedia)Kikwete, Jakaya Mrisho jäkäˈyä kĭkwĕˈtā [key], 1950–, Tanzanian political leader, b. Msoga, Tanganyika, grad. Univ. of Dar es Salaam (1978). He joined the defense forces while in college, an...

van der Meer, Simon

(Encyclopedia)van der Meer, Simon, 1925–2011, Dutch physical engineer. He spent nearly his entire career at CERN, where he did his most important work with Carlo Rubbia. They discovered the W and Z particles, whi...

tritium

(Encyclopedia)tritium trĭtˈēəm [key], radioactive isotope of hydrogen with mass number 3. The tritium nucleus, called a triton, contains one proton and two neutrons. It has a half-life of 12.5 years and decays ...

Sauvage, Jean-Pierre

(Encyclopedia)Sauvage, Jean-Pierre, 1944–, French chemist, Ph.D. Univ. of Strasbourg, 1971. He has spent his entire career as a researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research and a professor at the Uni...

Segrè, Emilio

(Encyclopedia)Segrè, Emilio, 1905–89, Italian-American physicist, Ph.D. Univ. of Rome, 1928. Segrè was a professor at the Univ. of Rome (1932–36), a researcher at the Univ. of California, Berkeley (1936–43)...

Smalley, Richard Errett

(Encyclopedia)Smalley, Richard Errett, 1943–2005, American chemist, b. Akron, Ohio, Ph.D. Princeton, 1973. He was a professor at Rice Univ. in Houston, Tex., from 1976 until his death in 2005. Smalley shared the ...

Perl, Martin Lewis

(Encyclopedia)Perl, Martin Lewis, 1927–2014, American physicist, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., Ph.D. Columbia, 1955. He was a professor at the Univ. of Michigan from 1955 to 1963, when he accepted a position at Stanford; he...

Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre

(Encyclopedia)Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre pyĕr tāyärˈ də shärdăNˈ [key], 1881–1955, French paleontologist and philosopher. He entered (1899) the Jesuit order, was ordained (1911), and received a doctorate...

radiometer

(Encyclopedia)radiometer rāˌdēŏmˈətər [key], instrument for detection or measurement of electromagnetic radiation; the term is applied in particular to devices used to measure infrared radiation. One of the ...

circuit breaker

(Encyclopedia)circuit breaker, electric device that, like a fuse, interrupts an electric current in a circuit when the current becomes too high. The advantage of a circuit breaker is that it can be reset after it h...