John G. King (physicist)
John Gordon King was an English-born American physicist who was the Francis Friedman Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the former director of MIT’s Molecular Beam Laboratory, and the former associate director of MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics.Career
Best known for his work on null experiments, King was also involved in the Physical Sciences Study Committee with his doctoral advisor Jerrold Zacharias. Additionally, he is the inventor of the molecular microscope. He has received the Alfred P. Sloan Award, the American Association of Physics Teachers Apparatus Competition prize, the AAPT Robert Millikan Medal, the Danforth Foundation's E. Harris Harbison Award for Gifted Teaching, and most recently the Oersted Medal from the AAPT in 2000.
King obtained undergraduate and graduate degrees in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and soon after he was appointed to the faculty there. As a young professor, he helped produce and acted in several PSSC educational movies, including Time and Clocks, Interference of Photons, Size of Atoms from an Atomic Beam Experiment, and Velocity of Atoms. King also developed innovative courses such as Concentrated Study, Project Lab, and Corridor Lab, which emphasized hands-on learning, independence of thought, and the scientific method.
King’s null experiments included searching for charge equality between the proton and electron, quarks, magnetic monopoles, and a variant of the continuous creation theory of matter proposed by Fred Hoyle, Thomas Gold, and Hermann Bondi.Selected articles and publications
- Brown, Howard H. and King, John G. Physical Review, Vol. 142:1. 1966.
- Cohen, Samuel A. and King, John G. Letters to Nature, MIT. 1969.
- Dylla, H. Fredrick Master's Thesis, MIT. Advisor, John G. King. 1971.
- Dylla, H. Fredrick and King, John G. Physical Review A, Vol 7:4. 1973.
- Jaccarino, Vincent. and King, John G. Physical Review Letters, Physical Review, Vol. 83:2. 1951.
- Johnston, Wilbur D. and King, John G. The Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 37:4. 1966.
- King, John G., Coleman, John W., Jacobsen, Edward H. Research Laboratory of Electronics, P.R. 115, MIT. 1973.
- King, John G., Coleman, J.W. and Jacobsen, E.H. Annals of the New York Academyof Sciences, Vol. 306. March 1978.
- King, John G. and Jaccarino, Vincent. Physical Review Letters, Physical Review, Vol. 94:6. 1954.
- King, John G. et al. Quarterly Progress Report, Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT, no. 104. January 1972.
- King, John G. et al. Research Laboratory of Electronics, P.R. 126, MIT. 1983.
- King, John G. American Journal of Physics, Vol. 69:1. January 2001.
- King, John G. and Romer, Robert H. The Physics Teacher, Vol. 40:3. March 2002.
- King, John G. Physical Review, Vol 5:12. 1960.
- King, John G. et al. American Journal of Physics, Vol. 60:11. November 1992.
- Sachs, Jason M. MIT Master's Thesis. Advisor, John G. King. 1996.
- Stephens, Peter W. and King, John G. Physical Review Letters, Physical Review, Vol. 51:17. 1983.
