Portrait of Robert S. Mulliken

Birthday profile

Robert S. Mulliken

Robert S. Mulliken, American physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1986)

Born
June 7, 1896
Died
October 31, 1986
Zodiac sign
Gemini
Birth year
1896

About Robert S. Mulliken

Robert Sanderson Mulliken was an American physical chemist, primarily responsible for the early development of molecular orbital theory, i.e. the elaboration of the molecular orbital method of computing the structure of molecules. Mulliken received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1966 and the Priestley Medal in 1983. Mulliken became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1936, the youngest member in the organization's history at the time. He graduated in 1913 and succeeded in getting a scholarship to MIT which had earlier been won by his father. Mulliken helped with some of the editorial work when his father wrote his four-volume text on organic compound identification, and thus became an expert on organic chemical nomenclature.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Robert S. Mulliken timeline

  1. He graduated in 1913 and succeeded in getting a scholarship to MIT which had earlier been won by his father.
  2. Mulliken became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1936, the youngest member in the organization's history at the time.
  3. Mulliken received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1966 and the Priestley Medal in 1983.

The world when Robert S. Mulliken was born

Robert S. Mulliken was born in 1896. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst modern Olympic Games held in Athens
  • Top headlinePlessy v. Ferguson — "separate but equal" upheld
  • Technology milestoneGuglielmo Marconi patents wireless telegraph (radio)
  • World population~1.56B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderGrover Cleveland
  • U.S. population69.0M

1896 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Robert S. Mulliken's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18962026
Population69.0M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.