Karl Taylor Compton was an American physicist and president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1930 to 1948. A researcher in electron physics and early experimenter on the photoelectric effect, Compton spent two decades at Princeton University before accepting the MIT presidency, where he transformed what had been primarily an engineering school into a research university with strong programs in basic science.
- Occupation
- physicist, university teacher, science administrator, nuclear physicist
- Citizenship
- United States
- Born
- September 14, 1887
- Died
- June 22, 1954
