Ernest Fox Nichols (1.06.1869-29.04.1924) was an American physicist and a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1908). He was born in Leavenworth. He graduated from Cornell University (1892), where he received his doctorate in 1897. In 1898 —1903 he was professor at Dartmouth College (president in 1909—16), in 1903 — 09 professor at Columbia University, in 1916 —20 at Yale, and from 1921 scientific director of laboratories in Cleveland.
His research was mainly in physical optics. He constructed a radiometer, the most sensitive of those existing at the time (the Nichols radiometer), with which he studied the reflection and absorption of infrared rays and the thermal radiation of stars, detected and measured (1903) the pressure of light predicted by Maxwell (P. N. Lebedev did this in 1899), and “filled” the gap between radio waves and heat rays.
B. Rumford Medal (1904).