Editing Arno Allan Penzias

{{Short description|American physicist (1933–2024)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2023}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Arno Allan Penzias
| image             = 32. Tagung 1982 Physiker; Beim Studentenabend Arno A. Penzias - W134Nr.119142 - Willy Pragher (cropped).jpg
| alt               = 
| caption           = Penzias in 1982
| birth_date        = {{birth date|1933|4|26}}
| birth_place       = [[Munich]], Bavaria, Germany
| death_date        = {{death date and age|2024|1|22|1933|4|26}}
| death_place       = San Francisco, California,<!--Links not needed per MOS:OVERLINK--> U.S.
| citizenship       = {{ubl|[[Nazi Germany|Germany]] ([[Nuremberg Laws|until 1935]])|[[Statelessness|Stateless]] (1935–1946)|United States (from 1946)}}
| field             = [[Physics]]
| work_institution  = {{ubl|[[Bell Labs]]|[[Columbia University]]}}
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Charles H. Townes]]
| thesis_title      = A tunable maser radiometer and the measurement of 21 cm line emission from free hydrogen in the Pegasus I cluster of galaxies
| thesis_year       = 1962
| thesis_url        = https://search.worldcat.org/en/title/35605851
| doctoral_students = [[Pierre Encrenaz]]
| known_for         = [[Cosmic microwave background radiation]]
| prizes            = {{ubl|[[Henry Draper Medal]] (1977)|[[Nobel Prize in Physics]] (1978)|[[Harold Pender Award]] (1991)|[[IRI Medal]] (1998)}}
| footnotes         = 
| spouse            = {{marriage|Sherry Levit|1996}}
| children          = 5
| education         = {{ubl|[[City College of New York]] ([[B. S.|BS]])|[[Columbia University]] ([[M. A.|MA]], [[PhD]])}}
}}
{{Physical cosmology|scientists}}

'''Arno Allan Penzias''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|ɛ|n|z|i|ə|s}}; April 26, 1933 – January 22, 2024) was an American [[physicist]] and [[radio astronomer]]. Along with [[Robert Woodrow Wilson]], he discovered the [[cosmic microwave background radiation]], for which he shared the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] in 1978.

==Early life and education==
Penzias was born in [[Munich]], Germany, the son of Justine (née Eisenreich) and Karl Penzias, who ran a leather business.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McMurray |first1=Emily J. |title=Notable twentieth-century scientists |last2=Kosek |first2=Jane Kelly |last3=Valade |first3=Roger M. |date=1995 |publisher=[[Gale Research]] |isbn=978-0-81-039185-7 |volume=3, L-R |location=Detroit, MI |oclc=30781516}}</ref> His grandparents had come to Munich from Poland and were among the leaders of the Reichenbachstrasse [[shul]]. At age six, he and his brother Gunther were among the [[History of the Jews in Germany|Jewish]] children evacuated to Britain as part of the [[Kindertransport]] rescue operation.<ref name=":1">{{CiteQ|Q126004030}}</ref><ref name="npr">{{cite web |last=Neuman |first=Scott |date=January 24, 2024 |title=Arno Penzias, co-discoverer of the Big Bang's afterglow, dies at age 90 |url=https://www.npr.org/2024/01/24/1226572843/arno-penzias-obituary-big-bang-theory |access-date=January 24, 2024 |work=[[NPR]]}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> Some time later, his parents also fled [[Nazi Germany]], first for the United Kingdom, and then for the United States, and the family settled in [[the Bronx]], New York City in 1940.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Nobel">{{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, December 8, 1978 ''The Origin of Elements''</ref> In 1946, Penzias became a [[naturalized citizen of the United States]].<ref name="wapo">{{Cite news |last=Weil |first=Martin |date=January 23, 2024 |title=Nobel laureate Arno Penzias dies at 90; helped find traces of Big Bang |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/01/23/arno-penzias-big-bang-nobel-died-obituary/ |access-date=January 25, 2024 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref> 

He graduated from [[Brooklyn Technical High School]] in 1951 and after enrolling to study chemistry at the [[City College of New York]], he changed majors and graduated 1954 with a degree in physics, ranked near the top of his class.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite web |title=Dr. Arno Penzias '51 |url=http://www.bths.edu/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=228863&type=d&termREC_ID=&pREC_ID=443924 |access-date=March 18, 2014 |website=[[Brooklyn Technical High School]] |publisher=}}</ref> Following graduation, Penzias served for two years as a [[radar]] officer in the [[U.S. Army Signal Corps]].<ref name=npr /> This led to a research assistantship in the [[Columbia University]] Radiation Laboratory, which was then heavily involved in microwave physics. Penzias worked under [[Charles H. Townes]], who later invented the [[maser]].<ref name=wapo/> Penzias enrolled as a graduate student at Columbia University in 1956, where he earned a master's degree and a PhD in physics, the latter in 1962.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Arno_Allan_Penzias |title=Arno Allan Penzias |work=IEEE Global History Network |publisher=IEEE |access-date=August 10, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100707231859/http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Arno_Allan_Penzias |archive-date=July 7, 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Career==
Penzias went on to work at [[Bell Labs]] in [[Holmdel Township, New Jersey]], where, with Robert Woodrow Wilson, he worked on ultra-sensitive cryogenic [[microwave]] receivers, intended for radio astronomy observations. In 1964, on building their most sensitive [[Holmdel Horn Antenna|antenna/receiver system]], the pair encountered radio noise that they could not explain.<ref>{{cite web |author= |title=Nobel-prize winning accidents |url=http://www.physics.org/featuredetail.asp?id=71 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203162043/http://www.physics.org/featuredetail.asp?id=71 |archive-date=December 3, 2013 |access-date=April 24, 2012 |website=[[Phys.org]]}}</ref> It was far less energetic than the radiation given off by the [[Milky Way]], and it was [[isotropic]], so they assumed their instrument was subject to interference by terrestrial sources. They tried, and then rejected, the hypothesis that the radio noise emanated from New York City. An examination of the microwave [[horn antenna]] showed it was full of bat and pigeon droppings, which Penzias described as "white [[dielectric]] material". After the pair removed the dung buildup the noise remained. Having rejected all sources of interference, Penzias contacted [[Robert H. Dicke]], who suggested it might be the background radiation predicted by some cosmological theories. The pair agreed with Dicke to publish side-by-side letters in the Astrophysical Journal, with Penzias and Wilson describing their observations<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Penzias|first1 = A.A.|last2 = Wilson|first2=R.W.|title=A Measurement of Excess Antenna Temperature at 4080 Mc/s|journal=[[Astrophysical Journal]]|volume=142|pages=419–421|date=1965|doi=10.1086/148307|bibcode=1965ApJ...142..419P|doi-access=free}}</ref> and Dicke suggesting the interpretation as the [[cosmic microwave background]] (CMB), the radio remnant of the [[Big Bang]].<ref name="Nobel"/><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Lehrer |first=Jonah |url=https://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/fail_accept_defeat/all/ |title=The Neuroscience of Screwing up |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |date=December 21, 2009 |access-date=December 21, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091229035926/http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/fail_accept_defeat/ |archive-date= December 29, 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref> This proved to be landmark evidence for the Big Bang and provided substantial confirmation for predictions made by [[Ralph Asher Alpher]], [[Robert Herman]] and [[George Gamow]] in the 1940s and 1950s.

[[File:Horn Antenna-in Holmdel, New Jersey - restoration1.jpg|thumb|center|upright=2.0|Penzias and Wilson stand at the 15-meter [[Holmdel Horn Antenna]] that brought their most notable discovery.]]

==Personal life==
Penzias was a resident of [[Highland Park, New Jersey]], in the 1990s.<ref>{{cite news |last=Horner |first=Shirley |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE5DD1031F930A35753C1A965958260 |title=About Books |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=October 3, 1993 |access-date=October 23, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071228205150/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE5DD1031F930A35753C1A965958260 |archive-date=December 28, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1996, Penzias married [[Silicon Valley]] executive Sherry Levit.<ref name=":0" /> He had a son, David, and two daughters, Mindy Penzias Dirks, and Rabbi Shifra (Laurie) Weiss-Penzias.<ref>Schlessinger B., Bernard S. and June H., ''Who's Who of Nobel Prize Winners, 1901–1990'', (Oryx Press, 1991) p. 203</ref> Penzias also had a stepson, Carson, and a stepdaughter, Victoria.<ref name=":0" />

Penzias died from complications of [[Alzheimer's disease]] at an assisted living facility in San Francisco, on January 22, 2024, at the age of 90.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Hafner |first=Katie |author-link=Katie Hafner |date=January 22, 2024 |title=Arno A. Penzias, 90, Dies; Nobel Physicist Confirmed Big Bang Theory |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/22/science/space/arno-a-penzias-dead.html |access-date=January 23, 2024 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

==Honors and awards==
Penzias was elected a Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] and the National Academy of Sciences in 1975.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web |title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter P |url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterP.pdf |publisher=[[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] |access-date=April 7, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515183157/http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterP.pdf |archive-date=May 15, 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/51742.html |title=Arno A. Penzias |publisher=[[National Academy of Sciences]] |access-date=July 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604001831/http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/51742.html |archive-date=June 4, 2023 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1977, Penzias and Wilson received the [[Henry Draper Medal]] of the [[National Academy of Sciences]].<ref name="Draper">{{cite web|title=Henry Draper Medal |url=http://www.nasonline.org/about-nas/awards/henry-draper-medal.html |publisher=[[National Academy of Sciences]] |access-date=February 24, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130126003930/http://www.nasonline.org/about-nas/awards/henry-draper-medal.html |archive-date=January 26, 2013 }}</ref><ref name=":1" /> The two were awarded the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation, sharing it with [[Pyotr Kapitsa]]. Kapitsa's work on [[low-temperature physics]] was unrelated to Penzias' and Wilson's.<ref name=N78>{{cite web | title = The Nobel Prize in Physics 1978 | publisher = Nobel Foundation | url = http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1978/index.html | access-date = 9 October 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081021034833/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1978/index.html | archive-date = 21 October 2008 | url-status = live }}</ref> In 1979, Penzias received the Golden Plate Award of the [[American Academy of Achievement]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org |publisher=[[Academy of Achievement]] |url=https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration |access-date=July 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326032022/https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration |archive-date=March 26, 2023 |url-status=live }}</ref> He was also the recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence. In 1998, he was awarded the [[IRI Medal]] from the [[Industrial Research Institute]].

On April 26, 2019, the Nürnberger Astronomische Gesellschaft e.V. (NAG) inaugurated the 3-meter [[radio telescope]] at the Regiomontanus-Sternwarte, the [[public observatory]] of [[Nuremberg]], and dedicated this instrument to Arno Penzias.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.agn-ev.org/radioastronomie_einweihung.php|title=Fachgruppe Radioastronomie {{!}} Einweihung des Radioteleskops: Ein Nobelpreisträger steht Pate und der Ministerpräsident gibt das Startsignal|work=Astronomische Gesellschaft in der Metropolregion Nürnberg|accessdate=January 24, 2024}}</ref>

On September 11, 2023, the Radio Club of America said that Penzias would be honored with the inauguration of the "Dr. Arno A. Penzias Award for Contributions to Basic Research in the Radio Sciences." The club said the award recognizes his significant contributions to basic research involving [[radio frequency]] and related subjects and that it would inspire future generations of scientific professionals. The club also announced that the first recipient of the new award will be named in 2024.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://radioclubofamerica.org/content.aspx?page_id=5&club_id=500767&item_id=92663 |title=RCA Announces 2023 Award and Fellow Recipients |language=en |access-date=October 7, 2023}}</ref>

==Works==
*{{Cite journal |pmid=17774056 |doi=10.1126/science.156.3778.1100 |date=1967 |first1=R. W. |last1=Wilson |first2=A. A. |last2=Penzias |title=Isotropy of Cosmic Background Radiation at 4080 Megahertz |volume=156 |issue=3778 |pages=1100–1101 |journal=Science |bibcode = 1967Sci...156.1100W |s2cid=46069151 }}
*{{Cite journal |pmid=17746031 |doi=10.1126/science.169.3945.583 |date=1970 |first1=A. A. |last1=Penzias |first2=R. W. |last2=Wilson |title=Microwave Noise from Rainstorms |volume=169 |issue=3945 |pages=583–584 |journal=Science|bibcode = 1970Sci...169..583P |s2cid=7066298 }}
*{{Cite journal |pmid=17729659 |doi=10.1126/science.205.4406.549 |date=1979 |first1=Arno A. |last1=Penzias |title=The Origin of the Elements |volume=205 |issue=4406 |pages=549–554 |journal=Science|bibcode = 1979Sci...205..549P }}
*{{Cite journal |pmid=17771085 |doi=10.1126/science.208.4445.663 |date=1980 |first1=Arno A. |last1=Penzias |title=Nuclear Processing and Isotopes in the Galaxy |volume=208 |issue=4445 |pages=663–669 |journal=Science|bibcode = 1980Sci...208..663P |s2cid=22381508 }}

==See also==
* [[Discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation]]
* [[List of Jewish Nobel laureates]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Arno Penzias}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, December 8, 1978, "The Origin of Elements"
* [https://www.scribd.com/doc/22155/The-Ideas-of-Arno-Penzias/ The first part of the article "Ideas" authored by Arno Penzias that was published in ''Science Reporter'' magazine]
* [https://www.scribd.com/doc/22888/Ideas-of-Arno-Penzias-II/ The second part of the article "Ideas" authored by Arno Penzias]
* [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1434807/ A Whisper From Space] (IMDb)
* {{IMDb name|3293692}}
* {{Discogs artist|Arno Penzias}}
* [https://www.nag-ev.de/radioastronomie.php Nürnberger Astronomische Gesellschaft e.V.: Web-Seite Arno-Penzias-Radioteleskop (german)]

{{Nobel Prize in Physics}}
{{1978 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Penzias, Arno Allan}}
[[Category:1933 births]]
[[Category:2024 deaths]]
[[Category:American astronomers]]
[[Category:American Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:Brooklyn Technical High School alumni]]
[[Category:City College of New York alumni]]
[[Category:Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni]]
[[Category:Columbia University staff]]
[[Category:Deaths from Alzheimer's disease in California]]
[[Category:Deaths from dementia in California]]
[[Category:Emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society]]
[[Category:Jewish American military personnel]]
[[Category:Jewish American physicists]]
[[Category:Jewish astronomers]]
[[Category:Kindertransport refugees]]
[[Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering]]
[[Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Military personnel from New York City]]
[[Category:Military personnel from New York (state)]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Physics]]
[[Category:People from Highland Park, New Jersey]]
[[Category:Radio astronomers]]
[[Category:Scientists at Bell Labs]]
[[Category:Scientists from New York (state)]]
[[Category:United States Army officers]]
[[Category:United States Army personnel of the Korean War]]
[[Category:United States Army Signal Corps personnel]]