John Gordon King is the Francis Friedman Professor of Physics (emeritus) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

, the former director of MIT’s Molecular Beam Laboratory, and the former associate director of MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics.

Career

Best-known for his work on null experiments

Null hypothesis

The practice of science involves formulating and testing hypotheses, assertions that are capable of being proven false using a test of observed data. The null hypothesis typically corresponds to a general or default position...

, King was also involved in the Physical Sciences Study Committee

Physical Sciences Study Committee

The Physical Science Study Committee was inaugurated at MIT in 1956 with the objective of reviewing introductory physics education and designing and monitoring improvements...

 (PSSC) with his doctoral advisor Jerrold Zacharias. Additionally, he is the inventor of the molecular microscope

Microscope

A microscope is an instrument used to see objects that are too small for the naked eye. The science of investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy...

. He has received the Alfred P. Sloan Award (1956), the American Association of Physics Teachers

American Association of Physics Teachers

The American Association of Physics Teachers was founded in 1930 for the purpose of "dissemination of knowledge of physics, particularly by way of teaching." There are more than 10,000 members that reside in over 30 countries. AAPT publications include two peer-reviewed journals, the American...

 (AAPT) Apparatus Competition prize (1961), the AAPT Robert Millikan Medal (1965), the Danforth Foundation's

Danforth Foundation

Danforth Foundation is one of the largest private non-for profit foundations in the St. Louis Metropolitan region. The foundation has 1.5 billion USD in assets as of 2003. Established in 1927 by Ralston Purina founder William H. Danforth and his wife, the Danforth Foundation grants funds...

 E. Harris Harbison

E. Harris Harbison

Elmore Harris Harbison was the Henry Charles Lea Professor of History at Princeton University. He was born in Sewickley, Pennsylvania in 1907. He joined Princeton as a faculty member in 1933. He became a trustee of the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1951.-References:...

 Award for Gifted Teaching (1971), and most recently the Oersted Medal

Oersted Medal

The Oersted Medal recognizes notable contributions to the teaching of physics. Established in 1936, it is awarded by the American Association of Physics Teachers. The award is named for Hans Christian Ørsted. It is the Association's most prestigious award....

 from the AAPT in 2000.

King obtained undergraduate (1950) and graduate degrees (1953) in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and soon after he was appointed to the faculty there. As a young professor, he helped produce and acted in several PSSC educational movies, including Time and Clocks, Interference of Photons, Size of Atoms from an Atomic Beam Experiment, and Velocity of Atoms. King also developed innovative courses such as Concentrated Study, Project Lab, and Corridor Lab, which emphasized hands-on learning, independence of thought, and the scientific method.

King’s null experiments included searching for charge

Electric charge

Electric charge is a physical property of matter that causes it to experience a force when near other electrically charged matter. Electric charge comes in two types, called positive and negative. Two positively charged substances, or objects, experience a mutual repulsive force, as do two...

 equality between the proton

Proton

The proton is a subatomic particle with the symbol or and a positive electric charge of 1 elementary charge. One or more protons are present in the nucleus of each atom, along with neutrons. The number of protons in each atom is its atomic number....

 and electron

Electron

The electron is a subatomic particle with a negative elementary electric charge. It has no known components or substructure; in other words, it is generally thought to be an elementary particle. An electron has a mass that is approximately 1/1836 that of the proton...

, quarks, magnetic monopoles, and a variant of the continuous creation theory

Steady State theory

In cosmology, the Steady State theory is a model developed in 1948 by Fred Hoyle, Thomas Gold, Hermann Bondi and others as an alternative to the Big Bang theory...

 of matter proposed by Fred Hoyle

Fred Hoyle

Sir Fred Hoyle FRS was an English astronomer and mathematician noted primarily for his contribution to the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis and his often controversial stance on other cosmological and scientific matters—in particular his rejection of the "Big Bang" theory, a term originally...

, Thomas Gold

Thomas Gold

Thomas Gold was an Austrian-born astrophysicist, a professor of astronomy at Cornell University, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the Royal Society . Gold was one of three young Cambridge scientists who in the 1950s proposed the now mostly abandoned 'steady...

, and Hermann Bondi

Hermann Bondi

Sir Hermann Bondi, KCB, FRS was an Anglo-Austrian mathematician and cosmologist. He is best known for developing the steady-state theory of the universe with Fred Hoyle and Thomas Gold as an alternative to the Big Bang theory, but his most lasting legacy will probably be his important...

.

Selected Articles and Publications

• Brown, Howard H. and King, John G. "Hyperfine Structure and Octopole Interaction in Stable Bromine Isotopes." Physical Review, Vol. 142:1. 1966.
• Cohen, Samuel A and King, John G. "Search for Hydrogen Appearing in Mercury Metal" Letters to Nature, MIT. 1969.
• Dylla, H. Fredrick "An Acoustic Means of Detecting An Electron-Proton Charge Difference." Master's Thesis, MIT. Advisor, John G. King. 1971.
• Dylla, H. Fredrick and King, John G. "Neutrality of Molecules by a New Method." Physical Review A, Vol 7:4. 1973.
• Jaccarino, Vincent. and King, John G. "On the Ratio of the Nuclear Magnetic and Electirc Quadrupole Interactions for Atomic Cl-35 and Cl-37." Physical Review Letters, Physical Review, Vol. 83:2. 1951.
• Johnston, Wilbur D. and King, John G. "Field Ionization Detectors for Molecular Beams." The Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 37:4. 1966.
• King, John G., Coleman, John W., Jacobsen, Edward H. "Electron Optics" Research Laboratory of Electronics, P.R. 115, MIT. 1973.
• King, John G., Coleman, J.W. and Jacobsen, E.H. "A High-Resolution Auger Electron Microscope Using Foil Lenses." Annals of the New York Academyof Sciences, Vol. 306. March 1978.
• King, John G. and Jaccarino, Vincent. "Hyperfine Structure and Nuclear Moments of the Stable Bromine Isotopes." Physical Review Letters, Physical Review, Vol. 94:6. 1954.
• King, John G. et al. "Molecular Beams." Quarterly Progress Report, Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT, no. 104. January 1972.
• King, John G. et al. "Molecule Microscopy" Research Laboratory of Electronics, P.R. 126, MIT. 1983.
• King, John G. “Observation, Experiment, and the Future of Physics.” American Journal of Physics, Vol. 69:1. January 2001.
• King, John G. and Romer, Robert H. "Physics on the Subway." The Physics Teacher, Vol. 40:3. March 2002.
• King, John G. "Search for a Small Charge Carried By Molecules." Physical Review, Vol 5:12. 1960.
• King, John G. et al."ZAP! freshman electricity and magnetism using desktop experiments: A progress report." American Journal of Physics, Vol. 60:11. November 1992.
• Sachs, Jason M. "An Interactive Servomechanism Demonstration." MIT Master's Thesis. Advisor, John G. King. 1996.
• Stephens, Peter W. and King, John G. "Experimental Investigation of Small Helium Clusters: Magic Number and the Onset of Condensation." Physical Review Letters, Physical Review, Vol. 51:17. 1983.