Nobel Prize Recipient. Percy Williams Bridgman, an American experimental physicist, received recognition after being awarded the 1946 Nobel Prize in Physics for, according to the Nobel Prize committee, "the invention of an apparatus to produce extremely high pressures, and for the discoveries he made therewith in the field of high-pressure physics." Since 1919, he received 42 nominations for the Nobel candidacy as he was very respected in the scientific community. Besides, high pressures, he was well-respected for his research in high temperatures. Born the son of a journalist, his interest in science was noted at an early age. After attending excellent public schools, he entered Harvard University in 1900. He graduated A.B. in 1904, A.M. in 1905 and was awarded his Ph.D. in Physics in 1908. At that point, he accepted a position with the Faculty of the Harvard University. Bridgman was successively appointed Instructor in 1910, Assistant Professor in 1919, before becoming Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in 1926. He was appointed Higgins University Professor in 1950. Beginning his research on high pressures in 1908, he had to invent his own equipment for testing as this was an unexplored field of science, making him a true pioneer. His most important invention was a special type of seal, in which the pressure in the gasket always exceeds that in the pressurized fluid, in that the closure is self-sealing. His research with high pressure would not have been possible without this seal. Bridgman is also known for his research on electrical conduction in metals and properties of crystals. Many synthetic diamonds and other jewel stones have been produced using his method. The Bridgeman Effect and the Bridgman-Stockbarger Method are named after him. He authored over 260 research papers, which were published in leading scientific journals. He authored textbooks including the "Dimensional Analysis" in 1922, "The Logic of Modern Physics" in 1927 and reprinted in 1960, "The Physics of High Pressure" in 1931, "The Thermodynamics of Electrical Phenomena in Metals" in 1934, "The Nature of Physical Theory" in 1936, "The Intelligent Individual and Society" in 1938, "The Nature of Thermodynamics" in 1941, and in 1950 a collection of nontechnical writings, "Reflections of a Physicist." He received honorary doctorate degrees from five United States universities plus the Sorbonne in Paris. He belonged to numerous learned societies. Besides the Nobel Prize, he was awarded the Rumford Prize in 1917, Elliott Cresson Medal in 1932, the Fellow of the Royal Society in 1949, the Roozeboom Medal from Royal Academy of Sciences of the Netherlands and the Comstock Prize from National Academy of Sciences in 1933, the Bingham Medal, Society of Rheology in 1951 and the New York Award of the Research Corporation. In 1912 he married Olive Ware and the couple had a son and a daughter. He was one of the 11 signatories of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, which was issued in London, England on July 9, 1955 in the middle of the Cold War, calling for world leaders to seek peaceful resolutions to international conflict and listing the dangers of nuclear weapons. He continued his research for several years after his retirement from Harvard University. He described his parents as being "profoundly religious" and reading the Bible each morning. Although his parents were active in the Congregational Church, he stopped attending as a youth, and by adulthood proclaimed to be an atheist. When he found himself for several years battling metastatic cancer, he ended his life with a gunshot wound in 1961. He is one of seven Nobel Prize recipients who committed suicide. He was said to be a "penetrating analytical thinker" with a "fertile mechanical imagination." His home was made a National Historical Landmark in 1975.