High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Robert A. Millikan (22 March 1868 – 19 December 1953) was an American experimental physicist, and Nobel laureate in physics for his measurement of the charge on the electron and for his work on the photoelectric effect. He served as president of Caltech from 1921 to 1945. He also served on the board of trustees for Science Service, now known as Society for Science the Public, from 1921-1953.