Sidney H. Liebson received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland

University of Maryland, College Park

The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...

 in 1947. His thesis was on the discharge mechanism of Geiger Muller counters

Geiger counter

A Geiger counter, also called a Geiger–Müller counter, is a type of particle detector that measures ionizing radiation. They detect the emission of nuclear radiation: alpha particles, beta particles or gamma rays. A Geiger counter detects radiation by ionization produced in a low-pressure gas in a...

. Liebson received a US Navy award for developing the first equipment used to identify enemy radar

Radar

Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...

.

Liebson participated in atomic bomb testing in the Pacific, developing radiation

Radiation

In physics, radiation is a process in which energetic particles or energetic waves travel through a medium or space. There are two distinct types of radiation; ionizing and non-ionizing...

 detectors that were used to measure bomb

Bomb

A bomb is any of a range of explosive weapons that only rely on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy...

 characteristics. In a significant test, his detectors validated the feasibility of making the hydrogen bomb. At a time when electronics

Electronics

Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...

 had not been able to make measurements with nano

Nano

Nano- is a prefix meaning a billionth. Used primarily in the metric system, this prefix denotes a factor of 10−9 or . It is frequently encountered in science and electronics for prefixing units of time and length, such as 30 nanoseconds , 100 nanometres or in the case of electrical capacitance,...

second

Second

The second is a unit of measurement of time, and is the International System of Units base unit of time. It may be measured using a clock....

 accuracy, he developed several techniques to accomplish this accuracy for measuring organic

Organic compound

An organic compound is any member of a large class of gaseous, liquid, or solid chemical compounds whose molecules contain carbon. For historical reasons discussed below, a few types of carbon-containing compounds such as carbides, carbonates, simple oxides of carbon, and cyanides, as well as the...

 fluorescence

Fluorescence

Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation of a different wavelength. It is a form of luminescence. In most cases, emitted light has a longer wavelength, and therefore lower energy, than the absorbed radiation...

 decay times and organic scintillation

Scintillation

Scintillation can refer to:*Scintillation , atmospheric effects which influence astronomical observations*Interplanetary scintillation, fluctuations of radio waves caused by the solar wind...

 pulse

Pulse

In medicine, one's pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the heartbeat by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed against a bone, such as at the neck , at the wrist , behind the knee , on the inside of the elbow , and near the...

 widths by indirect means. His 1947 invention of the halogen

Halogen

The halogens or halogen elements are a series of nonmetal elements from Group 17 IUPAC Style of the periodic table, comprising fluorine , chlorine , bromine , iodine , and astatine...

counter occurred while he was working on his thesis.