|
==Early life and education==
Penzias was born in [[Munich]], [[Nazi Germany|Germany]], the son of Justine (née Eisenreich) and Karl Penzias, who ran a leather business.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McMurray |first1=Emily J. |title=Notable twentieth-century scientists |last2=Kosek |first2=Jane Kelly |last3=Valade |first3=Roger M. |date=1995 |publisher=[[Gale Research]] |isbn=978-0-81-039185-7 |volume=3, L-R |location=Detroit, MI |oclc=30781516}}</ref> His grandparents had come to Munich from Poland and were among the leaders of the Reichenbachstrasse [[shul]]. At age six, he and his brother Gunther were among the [[History of the Jews in Germany|Jewish]] children evacuated to Britain as part of the [[Kindertransport]] rescue operation.<ref name="npr">{{cite web |last=Neuman |first=Scott |date=January 24, 2024 |title=Arno Penzias, co-discoverer of the Big Bang's afterglow, dies at age 90 |url=https://www.npr.org/2024/01/24/1226572843/arno-penzias-obituary-big-bang-theory |access-date=January 24, 2024 |work=[[NPR]]}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> Some time later, his parents also fled [[Nazi Germany]], first for the United Kingdom, and then for the United States, and the family settled in [[the Bronx]], New York City in 1940.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Nobel">{{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, December 8, 1978 ''The Origin of Elements''</ref> In 1946, Penzias became a [[naturalized citizen of the United States]].<ref name="wapo">{{Cite news |last=Weil |first=Martin |date=January 23, 2024 |title=Nobel laureate Arno Penzias dies at 90; helped find traces of Big Bang |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/01/23/arno-penzias-big-bang-nobel-died-obituary/ |access-date=January 25, 2024 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref>
He graduated from [[Brooklyn Technical High School]] in 1951 and after enrolling to study chemistry at the [[City College of New York]], he changed majors and graduated 1954 with a degree in physics, ranked near the top of his class.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite web |title=Dr. Arno Penzias '51 |url=http://www.bths.edu/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=228863&type=d&termREC_ID=&pREC_ID=443924 |access-date=March 18, 2014 |website=[[Brooklyn Technical High School]] |publisher=}}</ref> Following graduation, Penzias served for two years as a [[radar]] officer in the [[U.S. Army Signal Corps]].<ref name=npr /> This led to a research assistantship in the [[Columbia University]] Radiation Laboratory, which was then heavily involved in microwave physics. Penzias worked under [[Charles H. Townes]], who later invented the [[maser]].<ref name=wapo/> Penzias enrolled as a graduate student at Columbia University in 1956, where he earned a master's degree and a PhD in physics, the latter in 1962.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Arno_Allan_Penzias |title=Arno Allan Penzias |work=IEEE Global History Network |publisher=IEEE |access-date=August 10, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100707231859/http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Arno_Allan_Penzias |archive-date=July 7, 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|
