Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

In this interview, David Zierler, Oral Historian for AIP, interviews Vera Lüth, Professor Emerita at SLAC. Lüth recounts her childhood in Lithuania and her German family background, and her precarious experiences during and after World War II. She describes her undergraduate studies at Mainz University in the Federal Republic of Germany, and what it was like as one of the few women enrolled in science classes. Lüth explains her decision to transfer to the University of Heidelberg and her formal introduction to experimental particle physics at the Institute for High Energy Physics and then at CERN. She describes her research using bubble chambers to analyze pion-proton interactions, and the formative influence of Jack Steinberger during her time at CERN, and she offers a precis on his accomplishments up to the time of their collaboration. Lüth describes her research on signal decays involving charged particles which was located at CERN while she was a graduate student from Heidelberg, and she situates her research within the broader advances occurring in experimental particle physics at the time. She explains the opportunities leading to her postgraduate research at SLAC, she conveys the excitement of joining the Lab right at the time of the “November Revolution” of 1974, and she describes watching Panofsky walking around saying “Oh my God, Oh my God...” Lüth describes the independent and concurrent discovery made by Sam Ting at Brookhaven, and she explains the importance of theorists’ calculations, including those by Dave Jackson in understanding the resonances. She explains the process leading to the formal observation of “open charm” mesons, her early collaborations with Martin Perl, and the significance of the Mark II data derived at SPEAR. Lüth explains her decision to join the California Seismic Safety Commission project and some of the disconnects with the Department of Energy that were suggestive of the eventual fact that the endeavor was not viable. She discusses the origins of the BaBar project and its search for CP violation in B meson decays and she explains why laws of conservation have long fascinated her. Lüth explains her decision to retire at a relatively young age, and she reviews her numerous contributions in an advisory capacity over the past decade. At the end of the interview, Lüth reflects on her major contributions to the field, the larger-than-life stature of Panofsky, the foundational research of particle physics as an entrée to cosmology, and she describes some of the major and exciting future endeavors at SLAC.

In this interview, David Zierler, Oral Historian for AIP, interviews Ray Larsen, head of the electronics department at SLAC, where he specialized in controls instrumentation and microwave front end interfaces to electronics. Larsen recounts his childhood in Alberta and his Norwegian heritage. He discusses his undergraduate and masters degree experience at the University of British Columbia where he developed his interests in engineering and electronics. He discusses his work at the Canadian Armament Research and Development Establishment in Quebec City, and the circumstances leading to his tenure at SLAC, which he recognized immediately as his ideal career setting.  Larsen describes his long tenure at SLAC, which spans nearly the life of SLAC itself. Larsen explains many of the fundamental experiments that have taken place at SLAC, and he discusses the exciting, free-wheeling spirit of the early days at the lab, and how it has changed over the years.

In this interview, David Zierler, Oral Historian for AIP, interviews Lowell Klaisner, a longtime engineer and Chief of Operations at SLAC. Klaisner recounts his childhood in Northern California and his early interests in math and science. He describes his undergraduate and graduate experience at Stanford where he studied electrical engineering, and he discusses his work at Argonne, Fermilab, Eldec, and Hansen Labs. Klaisner provides a technical explanation of the engineering behind accelerator physics and he explains the circumstances leading to his employment at SLAC. He provides a broad overview of the many research projects he has been involved in at SLAC over the decades, and he gives perspective on the impact of the rise and fall of the SSC on high energy physics. At the end of the interview, Klaisner discusses the changing focus of SLAC in recent years and describes how it can remain central to major endeavors in physics in the future.

In this interview, David Zierler, Oral Historian for AIP, interviews Arthur Bienenstock, professor emeritus of photon science and associate director of the Wallenberg Research Link at Stanford University. Bienenstock describes his childhood in New York City and his education at the Bronx High School of Science, his studies at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, and his graduate work at Harvard. Bienenstock describes his postdoc work Harwell, the atomic energy research lab in England, his start as an assistant professor at Harvard, and his work in Washington at the Naval Research Lab and the National Bureau of Standards. Bienenstock discusses his move to Stanford, and the influence of the anti-war protests that were taking place in the late 1960s. He discusses the various strategies he has employed to balance his research and administrative duties over the years, and his involvement with the synchrotron radiation laboratory and with SLAC. Toward the end of the discussion, Bienenstock discusses his work in the realm of science policy at the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the White House and as special assistant to the president for federal research policy at Stanford.

Elizabeth Paris interviews Wolfgang Panofsky, Director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center from 1961 to 1984. In this interview, Panofsky discusses the design and construction of particle accelerators and colliders at SLAC, especially the SPEAR (Stanford Positron Electron Accelerating Ring) collider, and his work with Gerard O’Neil, Bernard Gittelman, Carl Barber, and Burt Richter. Panofsky describes his influence on science and national security policy as a member of the President’s Science Advisory Committee, his role in the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and his involvement with the Atomic Energy Commission and the Congressional Joint Committee on Atomic Energy.

In this interview George Trilling discusses topics such as: Gerson Goldhaber; undergraduate and graduate work at California Institute of Technology (Caltech); elementary particle physics; cloud chambers; Donald Glaser; Edwin McMillan; Burton Richter; Martin Perl; Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC); Stanford Positron Electron Asymmetric Rings (SPEAR); European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN); superconducting super collider (SSC); Sidney Drell.

In this interview R. J. Holt discusses topics such as: his graduate education at Yale University; Continuous Electron Beam Acclerator Facility (CEBAF)/Jefferson Laboratory; Don Geesaman; particle physics; HERMES experiment; University of Illinois and Urbana-Champaign; spectrometers; Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC).

In this interview Donald Geesaman discusses topics such as: Argonne National Laboratory; Dirk Walecka; hadron physics; Roy Holt; Herman Feshbach; Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC); Nuclear Science Advisory Committee (NSAC); Bernard Mecking; Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF); Gerry Garvey; quarks; Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab); Jefferson Laboratory; nuclear physics; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Larry Cardman; Keith Baker; relativistic heavy ion (RHIC) experiments.

In this interview Wolfgang Panofsky discusses topics such as: his time at the High Energy Physics Laboratory at Stanford University; Stanford Linear Accelerators Center (SLAC); Atomic Energy Commission (AEC); Edwin McMillan; Burton Richter; running a physical laboratory; Luis Alvarez; the Cold War; University of California, Berkeley; teaching and setting up research projects for graduate students; serving on the President's Science Advisory Committee; Robert Marshak; McCarthyism and House Committee on Un-American Activities; Paul McDaniel; Vietnam War's effect; working with Chinese physicists; Frank Oppenheimer; Department of Energy; safety measures in the laboratories; arms control; Marvin Goldberger; JASON group; Richard Garwin; John Holdren.

In this interview Wolfgang Panofsky discusses topics such as: his time at the High Energy Physics Laboratory at Stanford University; Stanford Linear Accelerators Center (SLAC); Atomic Energy Commission (AEC); Edwin McMillan; Burton Richter; running a physical laboratory; Luis Alvarez; the Cold War; University of California, Berkeley; teaching and setting up research projects for graduate students; serving on the President's Science Advisory Committee; Robert Marshak; McCarthyism and House Committee on Un-American Activities; Paul McDaniel; Vietnam War's effect; working with Chinese physicists; Frank Oppenheimer; Department of Energy; safety measures in the laboratories; arms control; Marvin Goldberger; JASON group; Richard Garwin; John Holdren.