Fairbank, William M., Sr.

Fairbank, William M. (Martin), Sr.

(1917–89) physicist; born in Minneapolis, Minn. He taught at Amherst College (1947–52), Duke (1952–59), and Stanford (1959–85). He made major contributions to studies of low-temperature superconductivity, was the first to provide experimental evidence of the existence of quarks (1977), and devised a gyroscopic method of testing Einstein's theory of general relativity during space shuttle missions.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.