Description
Professor of Physics, California Institute of Technology,
1930-1962. Papers include personal and professional correspondence, research notes and
data, manuscripts, reprints, patents, photographs. Covers work at Caltech, consulting
work and professional activities, personal and biographical materials. Topics:
cold-emission effect, medical physics work with Kellogg Laboratory, wartime work with
U.S. government and the military.
Background
Charles Christian Lauritsen, known to his colleagues as Charlie or C. C., was born in
Holstebro, Denmark in 1892 and educated at the Odense Technical School. During World War I,
although Denmark officially remained neutral, Lauritsen chose to leave Europe for the United
States, where he and his wife, the former Sigrid Henriksen, and son Tommy first settled in
Florida. After some years of working at engineering and design jobs around the country,
Lauritsen began his formal study of physics after hearing a talk by Robert A. Millikan, Caltech's
president. Enrolling at Caltech in 1927, he received his PhD in 1929 and was appointed to the
physics faculty in 1930.
Restrictions
Copyright may not have been assigned to the California Institute of Technology Archives. All requests for permission to publish
or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of the Archives. Permission for publication is given on
behalf of the California Institute of Technology Archives as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include
or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.
Availability
The collection is open for research. Researchers must apply in writing for access.