Theodore Lyman

For other persons named Theodore Lyman, see Theodore Lyman (disambiguation).

Theodore Lyman
Born	November 23, 1874(1874-11-23) Boston, Massachusetts
Died	October 11, 1954(1954-10-11) (aged 79) Cambridge, Massachusetts
Fields	Spectroscopy
Alma mater	Harvard University

Theodore Lyman (November 23, 1874 - October 11, 1954) was a U.S. physicist and spectroscopist, born in Boston. He graduated from Harvard in 1897, from which he also received his Ph.D. in 1900. He became an assistant professor in physics at Harvard, where he remained, becoming full professor in 1917, and where he was also director of the Jefferson Physical Laboratory (1908–17). Dr. Lyman made important studies in phenomena connected with diffraction gratings, on the wave lengths of vacuum ultraviolet light discovered by Victor Schumann and also on the properties of light of extremely short wave length, on all of which he contributed valuable papers to the literature of physics in the proceedings of scientific societies. During World War One he served in France with the American Expeditionary Force, holding the rank of major of engineers.

He was the eponym of the Lyman series of spectral lines. The crater Lyman on the far side of the Moon is named after him.

He was awarded the Franklin Institute's Elliott Cresson Medal in 1931.

References

• This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.
• USGS Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature Feature Information
• 1931 Frederic Ives Medal

Academic offices
Preceded by Wallace Clement Sabine	Hollis Chair of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy 1921-1926	Succeeded by Percy Williams Bridgman