Carl David Anderson
1905–1991, New York City, New York, United States, San Marino, California, United States
American physicist who discovered the positron and the muon in cosmic rays; he received the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Anderson was born in New York City and studied and worked at the California Institute of Technology. In 1932, examining particle tracks in a cloud chamber inside a magnetic field, he identified the positron—the positively charged antimatter particle predicted by Paul Dirac. The discovery provided the first experimental evidence for antimatter.
In 1936 he found another particle in cosmic rays, first called the mesotron and now known as the muon. That same year he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the positron; the muon was another major result of his cosmic-ray research.
Nobel-winning work
Anderson shared the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics (with Hess) 'for his discovery of the positron'. Using a cloud chamber in a magnetic field at Caltech, he photographed in 1932 a particle with the electron's mass but opposite curvature — the positive electron — confirming Dirac's 1930 prediction and opening the era of antimatter and particle physics.
Workplaces: California Institute of Technology
United States