William M. Fairbank

William Martin Fairbank (24 February 1917 in Minneapolis – 30 September 1989 in Palo Alto) was an American physicist known in particular for his work on liquid helium.

Fairbank obtained his A. B. degree from Whitman College (1939) and his Ph.D. in physics from Yale University (1948) under the supervision of C. T. Lane. He then went on to a productive academic career.

• Assistant Professor of Physics, Amherst College, 1947–1952
• Assistant Professor to Associate Professor of Physics, Duke University, 1952–1959
• Professor to Max H. Stein Professor of Physics, Stanford University 1959–1985
• Emeritus Professor of Physics, Stanford University 1985–1989

Fairbank had, at Duke, 7 doctoral students and, at Stanford, 47 doctoral students, including Blas Cabrera, Bascom S. Deaver, and Arthur F. Hebard. His three sons are: William M. Fairbank Jr. (a physicist and Fellow of the APS), Robert Harold Fairbank (an antitrust, business, consumer and IP lawyer in Los Angeles), and Richard Dana Fairbank (founder and CEO of Capital One).

• Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize from the APS, 1963
• Fritz London Memorial Lecture, 1965
• Member of the National Academy of Sciences, 1966.
• Fritz London Memorial Award, 1968