Willis Eugene Lamb, Jr., was born in Los Angeles on July 12, 1913. His mother, the former Marie Helen Metcalf, was a teacher, and his father, Willis Eugene Lamb, Sr., was an electrical engineer. After graduating from Los Angeles High School in 1930, Lamb enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley. He majored in chemistry and earned his B.S. in 1934. He then remained at Berkeley for his graduate research. After completing his doctoral research in physics under the direction of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Lamb was awarded his Ph.D. in 1938. His thesis dealt with the electromagnetic properties of nuclear particles.

Lamb's first academic appointment was in the fall of 1938 as instructor of physics at Columbia University. Over the next 13 years, he was promoted to assistant professor, associate professor, and finally, in 1948, full professor. Between 1943 and 1952, Lamb was also associated with the Columbia Radiation Laboratory, where he was engaged in...