Arthur Holly Compton's research on the scattering of x-rays , which he explained by assuming that the rays consist of tiny,discrete particles now called photons, earned him a share of the 1927 Nobel Prize for physics. Compton also was a member of the Manhattan Project team of scientists convened during World War II, serving as director of the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago.

Compton was born on September 10, 1892, in Wooster, Ohio. His father, Elias Compton, was a Presbyterian minister and professor of philosophy and dean at the University (later the College) of Wooster. Arthur's oldest brother, Karl, was to become professor of physics and later president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His mother was the former Otelia Catherine Augspurger, who received a honorary LL.D. degree by Western College in Oxford, Ohio; in all, the six members of the Compton family eventually received more than seventy...