Robert Theodore Lagemann, Ph.D., was an eminent U.S. physicist. An expert in ultrasonics and infrared spectroscopy, Lagemann received an A.B. in 1934 from Baldwin-Wallace College, an M.S. in physics from Vanderbilt in 1935, and a Ph.D. from Ohio State University in 1940.

In 1942, Lagemann was a research physicist in the Manhattan Project at Columbia University, working with Vanderbilt physicists Francis Slack and Ernest Jones. He was appointed the Landon C. Garland Professor of Physics and Chair of the Department of Physics at Vanderbilt in 1951 upon Slack's retirement. During his 26-year tenure at Vanderbilt, Lagemann received numerous awards and held various offices in regional and national science organizations, including the American Physical Society and the American Institute of Physics. He also wrote popular college and high school textbooks on physics.