Nobel Laureate Robert C. Richardson, Cornell Physicist Dies at 75

An American experimental low temperature physicist Robert Coleman Richardson, who won a Nobel Prize in 1996 for his work with helium gases, died Tuesday in Ithaca, N.Y., at the age of 75. He died at a nursing home from complications related to a heart attack he suffered three weeks before his death.

He shared the award with then Cornell colleague David Lee. They teamed up with former student Douglas Osheroff for their 1971 discovery, which stated that the helium isotope helium 3 can flow without resistance. This state is termed as superfluidity.

Richardson joined the Cornell faculty in 1968. In 1987 he was given the title of Floyd R. Newman Professor of Physics.

Born June 26, 1937 in Washington D.C., he attended the Washington Lee High School in Arlington, VA.. He completed his B.S. and M.S. in Physics at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. He earned his Ph.D at Duke University.

Apart from this, Richardson is co-author of a National Academy of Science report in 2005, "Rising Above the Gathering Storm:  Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future.". He is also co-author of the book "Experimental Techniques in Condensed Matter Physics at Low Temperatures", with Eric N. Smith and 21 Cornell graduate students.

According to Cornell president David Skorton, Bob Richardson was an an amazing physicist, a wonderful colleague, mentor and friend. The staff consider themselves lucky to have had the benefit of his wisdom for so many years.

He is survived by his wife Betty Richardson, a daughter, and four grandchildren.