In Defense of Robert Andrews Millikan

By David Goodstein

The creator of the famous oil-drop experiment for measuring the electron's charge has been criticized for his treatment of students, women, Jews--and even data

Anthropology Physics

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January-February 2001

Volume 89, Number 1
Page 54

DOI: 10.1511/2001.14.54

Robert Andrews Millikan was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1923, in large part for his pioneering measurement of the charge of the electron. He was a founder, first leader and all-around patron saint of the California Institute of Technology. In the first half of the 20th century, he was one of the most famous scientists in America. Yet he has been accused of male chauvinism, anti-Semitism, mistreating his graduate students and, worst of all, scientific fraud.

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