Alvin Tollestrup

Alvin V. Tollestrup (born March 22, 1924 in Los Angeles ; † February 9, 2020 ) was an American physicist who worked on particle accelerators . At Tevatron he implemented the first extensive use of superconductors in particle accelerators.

Tollestrup studied at the University of Utah (Bachelor 1944) and from 1946 at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he received his doctorate in experimental nuclear physics in 1950. He then did research at Caltech, where he received a full professorship in 1962. After completing his doctorate, he was part of the team that built a 500 MeV synchrotron for electrons (which served as a model for the Bevatron in Berkeley). In 1957 he was at CERN for a year when the first experiments were carried out there. He then continued to develop particle accelerators at Caltech, including a (never built) 300 MeV proton synchrotron. In 1975 he took a sabbatical for half a year , from 1977 he was at Fermilab , where he stayed for the rest of his career.

Together with Helen Edwards and others, Tollestrup built the first superconducting synchrotron at the Tevatron , for which around 1000 superconducting magnets had to be installed on the Energy Doubler . At the Tevatron he was also co-speaker for one of the two detectors ( CDF ) on which the top quark was discovered in 1995 . He was also involved in the development of neutrino sources and muon colliders.

In 1989 he received the Robert R. Wilson Prize with Martin N. Wilson . In 1992 he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Caltech, the National Medal of Technology in 1989 and in 1996 he was admitted to the National Academy of Sciences .

literature

• Andrew Sessler , Edmund Wilson: Engines of Discovery. World Scientific 2007

Web links

• About Alvin Tollestrup. In: ura-hq.org. Universities Research Association(English).