Editing Ernest Lawrence (section)

== Early life ==
Ernest Orlando Lawrence was born in [[Canton, South Dakota]], on August 8, 1901. His parents, Carl Gustavus (1871–1954) and Gunda Regina (née Jacobson) Lawrence (1874–1959), were both the offspring of Norwegian immigrants who had met while teaching at the high school in Canton, where his father was also the superintendent of schools. He had a younger brother, [[John H. Lawrence]], who would become a [[physician]], and was a pioneer in the field of [[nuclear medicine]]. Growing up, his best friend was [[Merle Tuve]], who would also go on to become a highly accomplished physicist.{{sfn|Childs|1968|pp=23–30, 476–477}}

Lawrence attended the public schools of Canton and [[Pierre, South Dakota|Pierre]], then enrolled at [[St. Olaf College]] in [[Northfield, Minnesota]], but transferred after a year to the [[University of South Dakota]] in [[Vermillion, South Dakota|Vermillion]].{{sfn|Childs|1968|pp=47–49}} He completed his bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1922,{{sfn|Childs|1968|p=61}} and his [[Master of Arts]] (M.A.) degree in physics from the [[University of Minnesota]] in 1923 under the supervision of [[William Francis Gray Swann]]. For his master's thesis, Lawrence built an experimental apparatus that rotated an [[ellipsoid]] through a [[magnetic field]].{{sfn|Childs|1968|pp=63–68}}<ref name=eugregag58>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=DvZVAAAAIBAJ&pg=6783%2C4575920 |newspaper=Eugene Register-Guard |location=(Oregon)|agency=Associated Press |title=Inventor of cyclotron dies after surgery |date=August 28, 1958 |page=5B |access-date=May 24, 2015}}</ref><ref name=thllegdc1>{{cite web|url=http://chancellor.berkeley.edu/chancellors/berdahl/speeches/the-lawrence-legacy |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |agency=Office of the Chancellor |last=Berdahl |first=Robert M. |author-link=Robert M. Berdahl |title=The Lawrence Legacy |location=Vermillion, South Dakota |date=December 10, 2001 |access-date=May 9, 2014}}</ref>

Lawrence followed Swann to the [[University of Chicago]], and then to [[Yale University]] in [[New Haven, Connecticut]], where Lawrence completed his [[Doctor of Philosophy]] (PhD) degree in physics in 1925 as a National Research Fellow,{{sfn|Alvarez|1970|pp=253–254}} writing his doctoral thesis on the [[photoelectric effect]] in potassium vapor.{{sfn|Alvarez|1970|p=288}}<ref>{{cite journal |title=The photoelectric effect in potassium vapour as a function of the frequency of the light |journal=[[Philosophical Magazine]] |pages=345–359 |volume=50 |issue=296 |date=August 1925 |last=Lawrence |first=Ernest Orlando |doi=10.1080/14786442508634745 |bibcode=1925PhDT.........1L }}</ref> He was elected a member of [[Sigma Xi]], and, on Swann's recommendation, received a [[United States National Research Council|National Research Council]] fellowship. Instead of using it to travel to Europe, as was customary at the time, he remained at Yale University with Swann as a researcher.{{sfn|Childs|1968|p=93}}

With [[Jesse Beams]] from the [[University of Virginia]], Lawrence continued to research the photoelectric effect. They showed that photoelectrons appeared within 2 x 10<sup>−9</sup> seconds of the photons striking the photoelectric surface—close to the limit of measurement at the time. Reducing the emission time by switching the light source on and off rapidly made the spectrum of energy emitted broader, in conformance with [[Werner Heisenberg]]'s [[uncertainty principle]].{{sfn|Alvarez|1970|p=256}}