Robert A. Millikan: Father of modern physics: This Nobel Prize winner´s investigations provided the impetus for the scientific changes that have taken place in this century

Robert Andrew Millikan´s parents expected him to work hard and contribute to the church. The long-lasting influence of this work ethic, which he held throughout his life, led to his painstaking research on the nature of matter and enabled him to become a self-made scientist. In 1923 Millikan won the Nobel Prize for physics for his work on the measurement of the charge of the electron and for his work on the photoelectric effect. He was the second American physicist to be awarded a Nobel Prize. Often considered one of the harbingers of modern physical theory, Millikan [Fig. 1] contributed to modern physics as a teacher, author, researcher, administrator, entrepreneur, and public figure.