Donald Arthur Glaser
Glaser, Donald Arthur (1926), an American physicist, won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1960 for inventing the bubble chamber. This device has been a vital aid in nuclear physics. With it, researchers were able to track the paths of nuclear particles. It contained liquefied gas. Nuclear particles shot through the liquefied gas left tracks of tiny bubbles that could be photographed. The bubble chamber was responsible for the discovery of a number of new atomic particles (including the rho- and omega-minus particles), and it made possible experimentation with particles that would have been extremely difficult without it.
The bubble chamber was the successor to a device called the cloud chamber. Charles Thomson Rees Wilson invented the cloud chamber in 1912 for detecting and recording the presence of electrically charged subatomic particles. However, the chamber—which contained air supersaturated with water vapor—could not always detect the fast high-energy particles that were created by particle accelerators that came into use in the early 1950's. After building several cloud chambers, Glaser turned his attention to finding alternate ways to detect high-energy particles. Using gaseous liquids such as beer, ginger ale, and soda water, he attempted to prove his hypothesis that bubbles rising from a glass might provide a clue for detecting high-energy particles. His initial experiments failed, but when he switched to using superheated ether, he succeeded. Later versions of the bubble chamber used liquefied xenon gas. The bubble chamber has been largely replaced by various electronic devices, including the particle detector.
Glaser was born in Cleveland in 1926 to William and Lena Glaser, immigrants from Russia. William Glaser operated a wholesale sundries business. Donald attended public schools in the Cleveland area. He also received private lessons on the violin and viola and studied musical composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He played with a local symphony orchestra when he was 16 years old. He ultimately decided on a career in science rather than music, but he continued to perform with local chamber groups in his adult life.
Glaser earned his bachelor's degree from Case Institute of Technology (now Case Western Reserve University) in 1946 and his doctorate from California Institute of Technology in 1950.
Glaser taught physics at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor from 1949 to 1959, advancing from instructor to full professor. He accepted a visiting professorship at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1959, and after being named to the permanent faculty the following year, remained there for the rest of his career.
After receiving the Nobel Prize in 1960, Glaser explored his interest in molecular biology. He studied microbiology at the University of Copenhagen in 1961. When he returned to the University of California, he carried out research on regulation of cell growth, bacterial evolution, and the causes of cancer and genetic mutation. He adapted photographic equipment designed for the bubble chamber and developed it into a computerized scanning system to identify bacterial species.
In 1964, Glaser became a professor of physics and molecular biology at the University of California at Berkeley. Cellular biology was later added to his professorship. In the 1990's, he served as a professor in the graduate school of neurobiology at the University of California at Berkeley. His research there was concerned with constructing computational models of the human visual system that explain its performance in terms of its physiology and anatomy. He cofounded the Cetus Corp., the first biotech company, and continues to serve on the board of directors of the Chiron Corp., the second largest biotech company in the world, which he merged with the company he cofounded.
In addition to the Nobel Prize, Glaser received the Henry Russel Award from the University of Michigan (1955), the American Physical Society Prize (1959), the Gold Medal by Case Institute of Technology (1967), and many other awards. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.