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It's a sad day in science. Leon Lederman died at the age of 96 years.
Leon was a legend in the world of particle physics. Perhaps best known for having coined the phrase "The Particle of God" in his book of the same name, Leon had a distinguished scientific career. A modest son of immigrants, whose father had a laundry in his hand, Lederman has reached the pinnacle of scientific success.
After a stint in the army during the Second World War, Lederman obtained his doctorate. from Columbia University in 1951, he eventually became professor and head of Nevis Laboratories at Columbia from 1961 to 1978. From 1978 to 1989 he headed the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the laboratory where I am currently a principal investigator .
In 1988 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for work completed in 1962 with collaborators Mel Schwartz and Jack Steinberger.
Leon was not only a fantastic scientist, he was also passionate about scientific communication to students and the public. He set up the Saturday Morning Physics program at Fermilab, a 10-week series of lessons on particle physics on Saturday mornings. It is free for high school students who live in the Chicagoland area and continues today. He worked with politicians from Illinois to create the Illinois Math and Science Academy, a residential high school aimed at gifted young people from all over Illinois.
He also wrote the book "The God Particle" in 1993, which tells the story of Higgs's boson particle and Lederman's many adventures during his career in physics. To the chagrin of physicists around the world, the name has remained.
Lederman's accomplishments are numerous and I recommend you read his official obituary to learn more about the life and career of this highly accomplished scientist. But I want to talk more about Leon man.
I knew Lederman well, but the difference of our time meant that we lived very different lives. When I arrived at Fermilab in 1987, I was a graduate student, a very poor young man who was making his way into the world of science. On the other hand, Leon was the director of the laboratory and obviously did not have to be bothered by young people like me. But that's not the kind of guy he was.
Example: in the cafeteria of Fermilab, in addition to the usual seats, there are two large round tables around which it is customary for experienced scientists to meet and discuss the topics of the day; There is no rule prohibiting others from participating. Lederman, as a director, often eats there. Several times I sat at the table and talked with the group, sometimes chatting with Lederman. He never made anyone uncomfortable and was happy to talk about a shop, to tell a joke or to ask how his experience was going. Sometimes he helped you find solutions to the problems you had with your measurement. He was a jolly and fun guy.
When his Nobel Prize was announced in 1988, my first thought was, "What for?" It was not because I could not think of a fulfillment of its value, but rather, I could not decide which one. Leon discovered the "violation of parity" in the decomposition of subatomic particles called pions and muons, which, indirectly, were related to the differences of matter and antimatter. (All particles have strange siblings called antiparticles that have the same mass but the opposite charge and spin.) He discovered a long-lived, neutral, subatomic particle called kaon, which was the first real laboratory to study how matter could turn into antimatter and come back. again. He discovered that there was not one type of neutrino, but rather that there were two (and possibly three). He also led a team that discovered the bottom quark, which proved that there were not two families of subatomic particles called quarks and leptons, but three.
It turned out that the Nobel was rewarded for discovering another type of neutrino.
The day the Nobel Prize for Leon was announced, we held a big party in Fermilab. It was only a year since I was working in the lab, but the staff had made him a so-called medal and an aluminum paper crown. He wore them with kindness as he wandered through the atrium of Fermilab, accepting the congratulations of his faithful. I shook his hand … the first time I met a Nobel laureate.
During his tenure as director of the Fermilab Laboratory, Lederman would give public lectures. In fact, his lectures were legendary, full of interesting stories, cheesy jokes and a spread that allowed a non-expert listener to enjoy the fascinating world of border physics. Whenever I heard about a conference that he was giving, I was sure to attend it. It was not that I went to learn physics … after all, these discussions were not aimed at scientists, but rather at members of the public. But I learned a lot by talking while looking at him. If you've ever seen me give a talk and found that my humor was a trifle to you facepalm, you can thank Leon for putting me on this path.
And Lederman wrote books for the public, the most famous of which was "The Particle of God". An autographed copy of this book occupies a special place in my library. The book is a fun read – its personality really stands out – I recommend you read it if you want to get an idea of the man's voice. And when I read it, I started thinking, "Hey, I can do it too." It took about a decade, but I finally joined him as a writer of science books for the public. And I was very grateful when Leon agreed to write a preface for my second book. He was a kind man, ready to help others.
I have not seen much Leon in the last ten years, the disease preventing him from traveling. However, its influence on me and many, many others will survive. He was a great man and we will miss him very much.
Originally posted on Live Science.
Don Lincoln is a physics researcher at Fermilab. He is the author of "The Large Hadron Collider: The extraordinary story of the Higgs boson and other elements that will blow up your mind" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014), and produced a series of videos on science education. Follow it on Facebook. The opinions expressed in this comment are his.
Don Lincoln published this article in Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights from Live Science.
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