Nov. 2, 1929 - Canadian-American physicist Richard E. Taylor is born. Taylor shared the 1990 Nobel Prize in physics for work in particle scattering that helped lead to the quark model of particle physics.
Oct. 30, 1941 - German physicist Theodor Wolfgang Hansch is born. He shared half of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on laser-based precision spectroscopy, which involves something called the "optical frequency comb technique."
Nov. 1, 1950 - American physicist Robert B. Laughlin is born. Laughlin's explanation of the fractional quantum Hall effect earned him the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Oct. 27, 1968 - Austrian-born physicist Lise Meitner dies. Meitner was involved in work that lead to the discovery of nuclear fission, but was not named when her collaborator Otto Hahn received the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Oct. 30, 1975 - German experimental physicist Gustav Ludwig Hertz dies. Hertz, along with James Franck, conducted the Franck-Hertz experiments regarding inelastic collisions in gases, which earned the pair the 1925 Nobel Prize in Physics. Gustav was the nephew of famed physicist Heinrich Rudolph Hertz, for whom the SI unit of frequency - the hertz - is named.
Oct. 27, 1980 - American physicist John Hasbrouck Van Vleck dies. Van Vleck received the 1977 Nobel Prize in physics for work understanding the behavior of electrons in magnetic materials.
Oct. 31, 1986 - American physicist & chemist Robert Mullikan dies. His work in molecular orbital theory earned him the 1966 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Oct. 27, 1992 - David Bohm, American physicist, dies at age 75. Bohm contributed to theoretical physics, introducing a controversial alternative to traditional quantum physics interpretations involving hidden variables, which has gained some measure of support in recent years, though is still considered a marginal theory. He also worked with the Manhattan Project. He left the United States in 1951, after being released from jail for refusing to answer questions to the House Un-American Activities Committee regarding previous connections with Communists.
Oct. 27, 1999 - American physicist Robert Mills dies. Mills is best known for his work Chen Ning Yang in developing the Yang-Mills field equations, crucial in quantum field theory and the principles of gauge fields.
