Willis Eugene Lamb (born 12.07.1913) is an American physicist and a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1954). He was born in Los Angeles. He graduated from the University of California (1934). In 1938-52 he worked at Columbia University (professor from 1948), in 1951—56 he was professor at Stanford University, in 1956 - 62 at Oxford, in 1962 - 74 at Yale and from 1974 at the University of Arizona.
His research is in the field of quantum and statistical mechanics, atomic and nuclear physics, microwave spectroscopy, quantum electronics and accelerator technology. He studied the fine structure of hydrogen and helium, the interaction of neutrons with matter, beta decay and nuclear resonance. In 1947 he established experimentally the shift of the energy levels in the hydrogen atom, the Lamb shift (Nobel Prize, 1955). Together with others he built in 1962 the first linear induction accelerator of high-power beams of relativistic electrons. Together with W. R. Bennett he found (1962 — 63) the merging of two dips into one at the centre of the gain line of a gas laser (the Lamb dip), studied it in detail and gave the theory of the gas laser (1964).
He measured (1953) the fine-structure constant.
The B. Rumford Prize (1953).