Open for research.

Gift of Sarah Stinson, December 19, 2018; Accession 2019.149.

PH 263 nuclear magnetism: notes on the lectures by Professor E.M. Purcell, given at Harvard University, 1954-1955. HUM 327, Harvard University Archives.

The Papers of Edward M. Purcell [accessions], 1930-1993 (Accession 13484) are held in the Harvard University Archives.

Edward Mills Purcell (1912-1997), a physicist, shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1952 for his independent discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance in liquids and solids. Nuclear magnetic residence has become widely used to study the molecular structure of pure materials and the composition of mixtures. It also is the basis of magnetic resonance imaging, one of the most important medical advances of the 20th century. Purcell attended Purdue University (BSEE 1933) and Harvard University (MA 1935, PhD 1938). During World War II, Purcell worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory developing microwave radar. After the war, he returned to Harvard and in 1946 discovered nuclear magnetic resonance with his colleagues Robert Vivian Pound (1919-2010) and Henry Cutler Torrey (1911-1995). Purcell’s scientific work led to advances in many other fields. In astronomy, Purcell was the first to detect radio emissions from neutral galactic hydrogen, leading to the first views of the spiral arms of the Milky Way and the start of radio astronomy. He also made contributions to solid-state physics leading to the development of the laser, and in the study of particle physics, particularly in explaining the dominance of matter over antimatter in the Universe. For his work, Purcell was the recipient of many scientific and educational awards.