Inventors and Innovators: Edward Mills Purcell

Purdue graduates continue to develop innovations and breakthroughs that help move the world forward. Purdue Today will highlight these inventors and innovators by featuring two each month in the Purdue Today newsletter and on social media.

Today, we are featuring Edward Mills Purcell.

Purcell discovered that by using a strong magnetic field and precisely tuned microwaves, one can measure nuclear resonance frequency and magnetism. 

Purcell, born in Taylorville, Illinois, studied electrical engineering at Purdue, graduating in 1933. He shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 1952 with Felix Bloch for their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and discoveries in connection therewith.

Purcell died in 1997 at the age of 84.

The Inventors & Innovators website contains Purdue alumni from business and industry; technology; medicine and health; and the food and consumer industries.