Vernon Willard Hughes (May 28, 1921 – March 25, 2003) was an American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

specializing in research of subatomic particles.New York Times:Dr. Vernon W. Hughes, 81, Authority on the Subatomic, By STUART LAVIETES, Published: March 31, 2003
/ref>NNDB:Vernon W. Hughes
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/ref> Hughes was born in

Kankakee, Illinois Kankakee is a city in and the county seat of Kankakee County, Illinois, United States. As of 2020, the city's population was 24,052. Kankakee is a principal city of the Kankakee-Bourbonnais-Bradley Metropolitan Statistical Area. It serves as an ...

. During World War II, he worked at the M.I.T. Radiation Lab. He earned his PhD under

I. I. Rabi Isidor Isaac Rabi (; born Israel Isaac Rabi, July 29, 1898 – January 11, 1988) was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1944 for his discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance, which is used in magnetic resonance ima ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1950. Hughes was notable for his research of muons which showed the existence of previously undetected matter. He was also noted for research that showed that

protons A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' elementary charge. Its mass is slightly less than that of a neutron and 1,836 times the mass of an electron (the proton–electron mass ...

have gluons and

quarks A quark () is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei. All commonly o ...

. Hughes was a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

Sterling Professor Sterling Professor, the highest academic rank at Yale University, is awarded to a tenured faculty member considered the best in his or her field. It is akin to the rank of university professor at other universities. The appointment, made by the ...

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, and a recipient of Rumford Prize, and a recipient of Davisson-Germer Prize in Atomic Physics and the

Tom W. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics The Tom W. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics is an annual prize awarded by the American Physical Society's Division of Nuclear Physics. Established in 1964, and currently consisting of $10,000 and a certificate, the Bonner Prize was founded in memor ...

, both from the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Vernon W. 1921 births 2003 deaths 20th-century American physicists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences People from Kankakee, Illinois Columbia University alumni Yale University faculty Yale Sterling Professors Fellows of the American Physical Society Massachusetts Institute of Technology staff

See also

References