Michelson

Michelson is a surname most notably associated with Albert Abraham Michelson (1852–1931), an American physicist who conducted pioneering measurements of the speed of light, developed interferometric techniques, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1907. He immigrated to the United States with his family as a child.

Michelson–Morley experiment: In 1887 Albert A. Michelson and Edward Morley carried out an experiment to detect motion through the luminiferous aether. The resulting negative outcome provided strong evidence against the existence of the aether and against light’s speed depending on Earth's motion, an result that influenced later developments in the theory of relativity.

Michelson interferometer: An optical instrument that uses a beam splitter to create two light paths that recombine to produce interference. It has been widely used for high-precision measurements in spectroscopy and metrology and remains a foundational technology in modern gravitational-wave detectors such as LIGO and Virgo.

Legacy: The name Michelson is commemorated in lunar nomenclature by the Michelson crater, named in honor of Albert A. Michelson. The surname appears in various scientific and academic contexts, reflecting the historical impact of Albert A. Michelson’s work on precision measurement and experimental physics.