2 Quotes & Sayings By John Goodsir
Born in London, England, John Goodsir attended Cambridge University where he studied physics with a special interest in optics. He was the first to demonstrate the double refraction of light by water droplets. He also developed a new method of measuring the speed of light by scattering electrons off the primary mirror of a reflecting telescope. After receiving his PhD, Goodsir joined the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge as a research scientist. Following his retirement from teaching at Cambridge, Goodsir founded the Institute of Optics at the University of Texas at Austin, where he remained until his death
At UT, Goodsir served as head of the Department of Physics and earned an international reputation for his work on double refraction, lasers, and holography. He married Margaret Wertheim in 1947. They had two children: Peter Goodsir (also a physicist) and Mary Margaret Wertheim (an artist). John & Margaret were divorced in 1973. He died of heart failure on 11 February 1994 at his home in Austin, Texas. Goodsir was an early advocate of using lasers to study water droplets and refraction.
He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (London) in 1955 for his work on double refraction by water droplets. John Goodsir is credited with one invention: "A method for observing double refraction by water droplets". His first patent for this method was granted in 1932. However it is likely that he discovered this phenomenon prior to this date since he published his results about double refraction by water droplets in Journale de Physique (1922).