Edward Ramberg
Encyclopedia
Edward G. Ramberg is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
– January 9, 1995) was an American physicist who contributed to the early development of electron microscopy and color television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
. He was the uncle of Mario Capecchi
Mario Capecchi
Mario Renato Capecchi is an Italian-born American molecular geneticist and a co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering a method for introducing homologous recombination in mice employing embryonic stem cells, with Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies...
, a 2007 Nobel laureate. His mother was an American painter, Lucy Dodd Ramberg (née Dodd), and his father a German archaeologist, Walter Ramberg. His father was killed while serving in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
Education
Ramberg and his mother moved from Italy to MunichMunich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
for the remainder of World War I, and in 1920 they moved to his mother’s family home in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
. He graduated from Lincoln High School in 1922. That year he enrolled in Reed College
Reed College
Reed College is a private, independent, liberal arts college located in southeast Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus located in Portland's Eastmoreland neighborhood, featuring architecture based on the Tudor-Gothic style, and a forested canyon wilderness...
, but two years later he transferred to Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
. During the years 1925 to 1927, he took a hiatus and worked for Bausch & Lomb
Bausch & Lomb
Bausch & Lomb, an American company based in Rochester, New York, is one of the world's leading suppliers of eye health products, such as contact lenses and lens care products today. In addition to this main activity, in recent years the area of medical technology has been developed...
on optical computing. Upon receipt of his bachelor’s degree from Cornell in 1928, he stayed at the University to work with Floyd K. Richtmyer
Floyd K. Richtmyer
Floyd Karker Richtmyer was a physicist and educator in the United States.-Biography:Richtmyer was born October 12, 1881, in the rural community of Cobleskill, New York....
. In 1930, Ramberg went to study with Arnold Sommerfeld
Arnold Sommerfeld
Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld was a German theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in atomic and quantum physics, and also educated and groomed a large number of students for the new era of theoretical physics...
at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich
Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich , commonly known as the University of Munich or LMU, is a university in Munich, Germany...
. He was granted his Ph.D. in 1932.
Career
Upon return to the United States from Munich, Ramberg returned to Cornell and continued the work on which he based his thesis: X-ray satellites and line widths. In 1935, he left Cornell to take a position at RCARCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
to work on both theoretical and experimental work on secondary emission
Secondary emission
Secondary emission in physics is a phenomenon where primary incident particles of sufficient energy, when hitting a surface or passing through some material, induce the emission of secondary particles. The primary particles are often charged particles like electrons or ions. If the secondary...
, pickup tubes, and field electron emission. He later took part in the development of the theory of thermoelectric refrigeration and image tube aberrations and in demonstrating the mathematical operability of a multistage electrostatic electron multiplier. He also took part in construction of one of the first electron microscope
Electron microscope
An electron microscope is a type of microscope that uses a beam of electrons to illuminate the specimen and produce a magnified image. Electron microscopes have a greater resolving power than a light-powered optical microscope, because electrons have wavelengths about 100,000 times shorter than...
s in the mid-1940s. He remained at RCA until 1972.
In addition to working at RCA, he was a visiting professor at the University of Munich in 1949 and, he was a Fulbright lecturer a the Technische Hochschule
Technische Hochschule
Technische Hochschule is what an Institute of Technology used to be called in German-speaking countries, as well as in the Netherlands, before most of them changed their name to Technische Universität or Technische Universiteit in the 1970s and in the...
Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
1960-1961. In addition to co-authoring a number of books, he also translated Electrodynamik, Arnold Sommerfeld’s
Arnold Sommerfeld
Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld was a German theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in atomic and quantum physics, and also educated and groomed a large number of students for the new era of theoretical physics...
third volume in his six-volume Lectures on Theoretical Physics.
Awards
- 1957 – Elected a Fellow of the American Physical SocietyAmerican Physical SocietyThe American Physical Society is the world's second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The Society publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including the world renowned Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, and organizes more than 20...
- 1964 – David SarnoffDavid SarnoffDavid Sarnoff was an American businessman and pioneer of American commercial radio and television. He founded the National Broadcasting Company and throughout most of his career he led the Radio Corporation of America in various capacities from shortly after its founding in 1919 until his...
Outstanding Team Award in Science from RCA
- 1972 – David Sarnoff Award (co-sponsored by RCA and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics EngineersInstitute of Electrical and Electronics EngineersThe Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is a non-profit professional association headquartered in New York City that is dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence...
) for his work on electron optics, electron physics, and television.
- 1989 – Karl Ferdinand BraunKarl Ferdinand BraunKarl Ferdinand Braun was a German inventor, physicist and Nobel laureate in physics. Braun contributed significantly to the development of the radio and television technology: he shared with Guglielmo Marconi the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics.-Biography:Braun was born in Fulda, Germany, and...
Prize form the Society for Information Display
- Fellow of the Institute of Radio EngineersInstitute of Radio EngineersThe Institute of Radio Engineers was a professional organization which existed from 1912 until January 1, 1963, when it merged with the American Institute of Electrical Engineers to form the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers .-Founding:Following several attempts to form a...
- Fellow of the American Physical SocietyAmerican Physical SocietyThe American Physical Society is the world's second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The Society publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including the world renowned Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, and organizes more than 20...
Selected Literature
- Arnold Sommerfeld and E. Ramberg Das Drehmoment eines permanenten Magneten im Felde eines permeablen Mediums, Annalen der Physik 8 46-54 (1950) as cited in Sommerfeld Bibliography – Sommerfeld Project.
Books
- V. K. Zworykin and E. G. Ramberg Photoelectricity And Its Application (John Wiley and Sons, 1934)
- E. E. Zworykin, G. A. Morton, E. G. Ramberg, J. Hillier, and A. W. Vance Electron Optics and the Electron Microscope (John Wiley & Sons, 1945)
- Arnold Sommerfeld, translated from the German by Edward G. Ramberg Electrodynamics - Lectures on Theoretical Physics Volume III (Academic Press, 1952)
- V. K. Zworykin, E. G. Ramberg, and L. E. Flory Television in Science and Industry (John Wiley and Sons, 1958)
- A. M. Morell and E. G. Ramberg Color Television Picture Tubes (Academic Press, 1974)