{"id":"robert-woodrow-wilson","type":"person","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/robert-woodrow-wilson","language":"en","name":"Robert Woodrow Wilson","name_en":"Robert Woodrow Wilson","name_ne":null,"description":"American astronomer (born 1936)","headline":"American astronomer (born 1936)","also_known_as":[],"summary":"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\".","summary_more":["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."],"facts":[{"key":"born","label":"Born","values":[{"text":"10 January 1936","date":"1936-01-10"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q171034#P569"}},{"key":"birthplace","label":"Place of birth","values":[{"text":"Houston","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16555"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q171034#P19"}},{"key":"citizenship","label":"Citizenship","values":[{"text":"United States","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q30"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q171034#P27"}},{"key":"occupation","label":"Occupation","values":[{"text":"astronomer","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11063"},{"text":"physicist","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q169470"},{"text":"researcher","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1650915"},{"text":"Nobel Prize winner","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q115784320"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q171034#P106"}},{"key":"education","label":"Education","values":[{"text":"California Institute of Technology","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q161562"},{"text":"Rice University","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q842909"},{"text":"Lamar High School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6480866"},{"text":"California Institute of Technology","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q161562","start":"1957-09-05","end":"1962-03-01"},{"text":"Rice University","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q842909","start":"1953-09-06","end":"1957-06-10"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q171034#P69"}},{"key":"awards","label":"Awards","values":[{"text":"Nobel Prize in Physics","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q38104","date":"1978"},{"text":"Henry Draper Medal","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q746633","date":"1977"},{"text":"Herschel Medal","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1614536","date":"1977"},{"text":"Karl G. Jansky Lectureship","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1528880","date":"1984"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q171034#P166"}}],"office":null,"sections":[],"cited":[],"cited_from":null,"videos":[],"last_reviewed":null,"organizations":[],"same_as":["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Woodrow_Wilson","https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q171034"],"faq":[{"q":"When was Robert Woodrow Wilson born?","a":"Robert Woodrow Wilson was born on 10 January 1936 in Houston."},{"q":"Where did Robert Woodrow Wilson study?","a":"Robert Woodrow Wilson was educated at California Institute of Technology, Rice University, Lamar High School, California Institute of Technology."}],"related":[{"name":"Jan Koum","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/jan-koum"},{"name":"Joe Gebbia","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/joe-gebbia"},{"name":"Luke Nosek","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/luke-nosek"},{"name":"Miriam Adelson","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/miriam-adelson"},{"name":"Adam Riess","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/adam-riess"},{"name":"Alan J. Heeger","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/alan-j-heeger"},{"name":"Alfred G. Gilman","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/alfred-g-gilman"},{"name":"Alfred Hershey","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/alfred-hershey"},{"name":"Allan MacLeod Cormack","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/allan-macleod-cormack"},{"name":"Andrea M. Ghez","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/andrea-m-ghez"},{"name":"Andrew Fire","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/andrew-fire"},{"name":"Andrew Schally","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/andrew-schally"}],"places_in":[],"nearby":[],"image":{"url":"https://diginpl.com/kb-img/robert-woodrow-wilson-a4e53c1271.jpg","width":500,"height":630,"license":"CC BY 2.0","credit":"Victor R. Ruiz from Arinaga, Canary Islands, Spain","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_Wilson_(28215880301)_(cropped)_(cropped).jpg"},"sources":[{"label":"Wikipedia (English): Robert Woodrow Wilson","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Woodrow_Wilson","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"},{"label":"Wikidata item Q171034","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q171034","license":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"},{"label":"Image: Robert Wilson (28215880301) (cropped) (cropped).jpg by Victor R. Ruiz from Arinaga, Canary Islands, Spain (CC BY 2.0)","url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_Wilson_(28215880301)_(cropped)_(cropped).jpg","license":null}],"license":{"text":"CC BY-SA 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/","facts":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"},"attribution":"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.","cite":"\"Robert Woodrow Wilson\". DigiNepal. Last updated 31 October 2026. https://diginpl.com/people/robert-woodrow-wilson. Retrieved 6 November 2026.","date_modified":"2026-10-31T12:00:53Z","facts_checked":"2026-11-06","alternates":{"html":"https://diginpl.com/people/robert-woodrow-wilson","en":"https://diginpl.com/people/robert-woodrow-wilson","ne":"https://diginpl.com/people/robert-woodrow-wilson?lang=ne"}}