Willis E. Lamb Jr (1913–2008)

Abstract

THE LAMB SHIFT EXPERIMENT was a landmark in 20th-century physics. Lamb devised an experiment that would be a crucial test of and provide the stimulus for renormalized T quantum field theory. The experiments of Lamb and his students grounded quantum field theory in experimental reality and was instrumental in the emergence of quantum electrodynamics as the most accurate theory we have today. Willis Lamb received a Nobel Prize for this achievement and continued to make fundamental contributions in many fields. In the words of Schweber2, “[Lamb] is one of the last physicists who could master the whole of physics.” Moreover, his contributions were both in experiment and theory and laid the foundation for new fields of research from nuclear physics (the Lamb-Mössbauer effect) to laser physics (the quantum theory of the laser) and laser spectroscopy (the Lamb dip).