When was Robert Woodrow Wilson born?

Robert Woodrow Wilson was born on 10 January 1936 in Houston.

Where did Robert Woodrow Wilson study?

Robert Woodrow Wilson was educated at California Institute of Technology, Rice University, Lamar High School, California Institute of Technology.

Victor R. Ruiz from Arinaga, Canary Islands, Spain · CC BY 2.0

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Robert Woodrow Wilson

American astronomer (born 1936)

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Robert Woodrow Wilson (born January 11, 1936) is an American astronomer who shared the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics with Arno Penzias "for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation".

Quick facts

Born: 10 January 1936 wd
Place of birth: Houston wd
Citizenship: United States wd
Occupation: astronomer, physicist, researcher, Nobel Prize winner wd
Education: California Institute of Technology, Rice University, Lamar High School, California Institute of Technology, Rice University wd

Awards wd

Nobel Prize in Physics (1978)
Henry Draper Medal (1977)
Herschel Medal (1977)
Karl G. Jansky Lectureship (1984)

About

While doing tests and experiments with the Holmdel Horn Antenna at Bell Labs in Holmdel Township, New Jersey, Wilson and Penzias discovered a source of noise in the atmosphere that they could not explain. After removing all potential sources of noise, including pigeon droppings on the antenna, the noise was finally identified as CMB, which served as important corroboration of the Big Bang theory.

In 1970, Wilson led a team that made the first detection of a rotational spectral line of carbon monoxide (CO) in an astronomical object, the Orion Nebula, and eight other galactic sources. Subsequently, CO observations became the standard method of tracing cool molecular interstellar gas, and detection of CO was the foundational event for the fields of millimeter and submillimeter astronomy.

Questions

When was Robert Woodrow Wilson born?: Robert Woodrow Wilson was born on 10 January 1936 in Houston.
Where did Robert Woodrow Wilson study?: Robert Woodrow Wilson was educated at California Institute of Technology, Rice University, Lamar High School, California Institute of Technology.

Sources

Last updated 31 October 2026 · facts checked 6 November 2026

Cite this page

"Robert Woodrow Wilson". DigiNepal. Last updated 31 October 2026. https://diginpl.com/people/robert-woodrow-wilson. Retrieved 6 November 2026.

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Text from the Wikipedia article Robert Woodrow Wilson, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page's text is shared under the same licence. Facts from Wikidata (CC0). Image: Robert Wilson (28215880301) (cropped) (cropped).jpg — Victor R. Ruiz from Arinaga, Canary Islands, Spain, CC BY 2.0.

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