Glaser, Donald Arthur
Glaser, Donald Arthur (1926- ), American physicist and winner of the 1960 Nobel Prize in physics for his invention of the bubble chamber, a device for detecting high-energy particles (see Particle Detector ; Elementary Particle ). With this device, Glaser contributed greatly to the understanding of atomic function and provided the technology for the discovery of new atomic particles. Glaser was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Russian immigrants. An accomplished violinist, Glaser became a member of a symphony orchestra at age sixteen and studied composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He received his B.S. degree in mathematics and physics from Cleveland's Case Institute of Technology (now Case Western Reserve University) in 1946, and his Ph.D. degree from the California Institute of Technology in 1950. In 1949 Glaser accepted a position as instructor at the University of Michigan, where he began his bubble chamber experiments. In 1959 Glaser became a professor of physic...