Robert Retherford

{{Short description|American physicist (1912–1981)}}

{{Infobox scientist

|name = Robert Curtis Retherford

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|birth_date = {{Birth year|1912}}

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|death_date = {{Death year and age|1981|1912}}

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|citizenship = United States

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|fields = Physics

|workplaces = Columbia University

|alma_mater = Columbia University

|doctoral_advisor = Willis Lamb

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|known_for = Lamb shift

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Robert Curtis Retherford (1912–1981) was an American physicist. He was a graduate student of Willis Lamb at Columbia Radiation Laboratory. Retherford and Lamb performed the famous experiment (now known as the Lamb–Retherford experiment) revealing Lamb shift in the fine structure of hydrogen, a decisive experimental step toward a new understanding of quantum electrodynamics.{{cite journal|title=Fine Structure of the Hydrogen Atom by a Microwave Method|last1=Lamb, Jr|first1=W. E.|authorlink=Willis Lamb |last2=Retherford |first2=R. C. |journal=Physical Review|volume=72|issue=3|pages=241–243|date=1947|doi=10.1103/PhysRev.72.241|bibcode=1947PhRv...72..241R|doi-access=free}}{{cite book |last=Schweber |first=Silvan |authorlink=Silvan Schweber |year=1994 |isbn=978-0691033273 |title=QED and the Men Who Did it: Dyson, Feynman, Schwinger, and Tomonaga |chapter=Chapter 5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/qedmenwhomadeitd0000schw/page/215 215] |publisher=Princeton University Press |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/qedmenwhomadeitd0000schw/page/215 }}