Bridgman, Percy Williams
Bridgman, Percy Williams (1882-1961), a United States physicist. In 1946 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for his study of the effects of high pressure on the physical properties of matter. He was also noted for the design and construction of high-pressure equipment. Bridgman is commonly regarded as the founder of operationalism, which states that a scientific concept is defined by the set of procedures used to measure it. This view contributed to the clarification of scientific terms. Bridgman was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He received his Ph.D. at Harvard University and taught there until he retired in 1954.