Edward Mills Purcell (born 30.08.1912) is an American physicist and a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1951). Born in Taylorville. Graduated from Purdue (1933) and Harvard (1935) universities, in 1938 received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Harvard University, where he works (professor from 1949). In 1941–46 he worked at the Radiation Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His work was in the field of radio spectroscopy, nuclear magnetism, atomic, molecular and nuclear physics, radio astronomy, biophysics and astrophysics. In 1946, independently of F. Bloch and together with R. Pound, he discovered nuclear magnetic resonance (Nobel Prize, 1952). He developed the nuclear resonance method for measuring the magnetic moments of nuclei and particles, studied molecular structures and the behaviour of nuclei at low temperatures, and measured atomic constants. In 1948, together with N. Bloembergen and R. Pound, he introduced the notion of a spin temperature higher than the lattice temperature, and in 1951, with Pound, that of positive and negative spin temperature. In 1950, with R. Pound, he was the first to observe stimulated emission, achieving a population inversion in nuclear systems by rapidly changing the direction of the magnetic field. Together with H. Ewen he detected (1951) the emission of neutral interstellar hydrogen at a wavelength of 21 cm. The H. Oersted Medal (1968), the National Medal of Science (1980). President of the American Physical Society (1970).