A scientist can truly be considered revolutionary when their by Robert Andrews Millikan was born on March 22, 1868 as the second son of the Reverend Silas Franklin Millikan (father) and Mary Jane Andrews Millikan (mother) in the town of Morrison, Illinois. He attended Maquoketa Community High School in Iowa and after graduation went to Oberlin College in Ohio from 1886 to 1891 and became an elementary physics teacher. Millikan subsequently continued his education at Columbia University from 1893 to 1895. He received his PhD in 1895 from Columbia University. Millikan subsequently spent a year in Germany at the Universities of Berlin and Göttingen. He eventually returned to the United States after receiving an invitation from A. A. Michelson to become an assistant at the newly formed Ryerson Laboratory at the University of Chicago in 1896. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In 1902 Millikan married Greta Erwin Blanchard and they had three children: Clark Blanchard, Glenn Allen, and Max Franklin. Millikan subsequently became a professor at the University of Chicago in 1910, a position he held until 1921 (“The 1923 Nobel Prize”). Millikan also proved Einstein's very important photoelectric equation in 1912-1915. During World War I Millikan was vice president of the National Research Council, also contributing to the creation of meteorological and anti-submarine devices. From 1920 to 1923 he kept himself busy exploring hot spark spectroscopy of the elements. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1923 (“The 1923 Nobel Prize”). Millikan died on December 19, 1953 in San Marino, California (he was 85 years old). Millikan was a prolific author throughout his life. Millikan enjoyed playing tennis and golf when he was not a scientist. Millikan holds honorary degrees from approximately 25 different universities. (“The 1923 Nobel Prize”). Millikan's discoveries continue to be appreciated even after his death and will remain so for the rest of time. In 1909, Millikan conducted an experiment that would earn him a Nobel Peace Prize for his discovery. (The Millikan Oil Drop Experiment) This experiment was called the Oil Drop Experiment. It consisted of a tube-shaped chamber with two charged plates, one positively charged and the other negatively charged. The positively charged plate was in the center while the negatively charged plate was at the bottom. It also consisted of a microscope looking into the lower half of the chamber and an oil-filled atomizer attached to the top of the chamber. There was also a torch at the bottom of the chamber (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica). Using the above setup, Millikan was able to precisely measure the electric charge of a single electron. This was the first time anyone had achieved this. It did this by using the atomizer to spray a mist of oil droplets into the top chamber, and gravity pulled a few droplets through a hole into the second chamber. When the droplets fell through the hole, they acquired a negative charge due to the metal plates being ionized by radiation. A flashlight illuminated the droplets, and through the microscope, Millikan was able to measure the mass of the droplets. Please note: this is just a sample. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay The tension of the metal plates could then be raised or lowered, resulting in a decrease or increase in the movement of the droplet (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica). When the tension was highest there10^-9.