Percy Williams Bridgman

Percy Williams Bridgman

Harvard University

April 21, 1882 – August 20, 1961

Physicist
Awarded Bingham Medal 1951

Dr. Percy Williams Bridgman was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and grew up as an intelligent and competitive child in a good school system. Bridgman went to Harvard College to pursue a degree highly focused in mathematics, physics, and chemistry. He graduated summa cum laude in 1904. He then also received a master’s and PhD from Harvard in 1905 and 1908 respectively. He then went on to work at Harvard in the Department of Physics as a professor for 46 years.

Throughout his career, his research focused on the application of high static pressures to materials. To study these effects he had to invent much of the research equipment himself because the field was so unexplored. Using this bespoke equipment, he measured the compressibility of different liquids and solids, phase changes of solids, and the physical properties of solids, documenting the changes in these change at extremely high pressures. In 1946, he was awarded the Nobel Prize “for the invention of an apparatus to produce extremely high pressures, and for the discoveries he made therewith in the field of high pressure physics”. He was subsequently awarded the Bingham Medal in 1951 for his work in high pressures and how the properties of materials were affected. Bridgman was not just a creative experimentalist, but also had the theoretical insight and good judgment to discern what topics in the field should be prioritized.

Bridgman also was very interested in philosophy and the “…understanding of the foundations of physical thoughts”, as he put it. He talked about these aspects in some of his lectures, books, and other publications. He often tried to apply simple solutions provided by physics to the complex problems of life. In his time at Harvard, he advised a number of outstanding scientists including J. Robert Oppenheimer, Edwin Crawford Kemble, John Clarke Slater, A. Francis Birch, and George B. Benedek.

Sources

Newitt, Dudley Maurice. Percy Williams Bridgman 1882-1961. Biographical Memoirs of the Fellows of the Royal Society; The Royal Society Publishing, 1962; vol.8, pp 27-40. Go to link.

Bradley, Rupert Stevenson. Percy Williams Bridgman. Encyclopædia Britannica [Online]; Posted Jan 14, 1999. Go to link (accessed June 28, 2018).

Kemble, Edwin C.; Birch, Francis. Percy Williams Bridgman 1882-1961. Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences; National Academy of Sciences: Washington, D.C., 1970; pp 23-67. Go to link.

Percy W. Bridgman. The Nobel Prize. Go to link. (accessed Feb 24, 2019).

Rheology Bulletin Fall 1951, 20(1, 2). Alos, Box 5, Folder 12. Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740.

Photo Credit

Bridgman Percy A2, AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives.