Robert Vivian Pound (born 16.05.1919) is an American experimental physicist and a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1961). He was born in Ridgeway (Canada). He has lived in the USA since 1923. He graduated from the University at Buffalo (1941). In 1942-46 he worked at the Radiation Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1945 he has worked at Harvard University (professor from 1956).
His research was in nuclear magnetism, microwave technology, radio spectroscopy and nuclear physics. In 1946, together with E. Purcell, he discovered nuclear magnetic resonance. He extended the method of nuclear magnetic resonance absorption to the study of the interactions of the electric quadrupole moments of nuclei in crystals and developed a theory of thermal relaxation in crystals. Together with N. Ramsey he proposed a new resonance method, called nuclear spectroscopy at audio frequencies. He used various methods of nuclear induction to measure the gyromagnetic ratios of a number of nuclei, quadrupole interactions and spins, and to study a number of properties of molecules and solids. He pointed out the possibility of orientation through the interaction of the electric quadrupole moment of a nucleus with the field of a crystal and, independently of B. Bleaney, proposed (1949) two methods of obtaining oriented nuclei. In 1950, with E. Purcell, he was the first to observe stimulated emission in the radio range and introduced the concept of positive and negative spin temperature. He developed the theory of noise in a quantum amplifier. In 1960, with J. Rebka, he measured in the laboratory the shift of spectral lines caused by the Earth's gravitational field.
The B. Rumford Medal (1948) and the A. Eddington Medal (1965).