Category: Tribute

It was with shock and sorrow that we heard Jim Allaby passed away on 7 April.  Jim was born in Preston, England, in October 1936.  After obtaining a first degree in physics at King’s College, London, he moved to Liverpool to study for his PhD at the university’s synchrocyclotron.  This was his first proton-proton scattering experiment, and was also the start of a lifelong friendship with Bert Diddens, who was there as a CERN fellow.

In the early 1960s Jim moved to SLAC where he worked with Dave Ritson on electron inelastic scatterings.  Ritson greatly appreciated Jim’s calm and systematic approach to any kind of problem he was confronted with.  Thus it was natural for Jim to visit SLAC later and for Ritson to join the DELPHI Collaboration in the 1990s.

Jim came to CERN in the summer of 1965.  He joined the CERN group of Giuseppe Cocconi, Bert Diddens and Alan Wetherell, who were preparing proton-proton scattering experiments, in a slowly extracted proton beam, at the highest PS energies.  This led to the discovery of structures in large-angle scattering and the “black disc” behaviour of elastic scattering.  Jim had a very good command of the English language and was the careful editor of the relevant publications, as for many later experiments.

In 1968 a CERN group — formed around Alan, Bert and Jim — initiated a collaboration to study particle production and the total hadron-hadron cross section at the new 70 GeV Serpukhov accelerator.  Jim took this mission very seriously and learned Russian, much better than the others.  The bureaucracy was tough;  people in Protvino were not allowed any non-professional contact with the CERN team, but Jim excelled in overcoming this, thanks to his character, social skills and knowledge of the language.

Jim’s role in the development of relations with Eastern Europe continued during the time of the SPS, when he served on the Joint Scientific Committee for the cooperation between CERN and IHEP.  Later he was co-chairman on a similar committee for cooperation between CERN and JINR.

In 1970 the CERN group joined the Rome-ISS (Istituto Superiore di Sanità) group who had proposed measuring small-angle elastic scattering at the nearly-completed Intersecting Storage Rings using the technique that became known as “Roman pots”.

Jim participated in the initial phase of the experiment, which brought several discoveries including the rising proton-proton cross-section.  However, he was becoming more involved in serving the physics community, as PS Coordinator in 1970 and later as a member of the team preparing the SPS experimental programme.  John Adams then appointed him as Physics Coordinator for this programme, working in close collaboration with the Experimental Areas Groups, in charge of designing the areas and the beams.  This fruitful cooperation led to the construction of the initial complement of beams with all the required particle detection and identification devices.  This was an activity in which Jim displayed his very special qualities as someone always ready to serve his community by implementing his own vision, but capable of making reasonable compromises and decisions without upsetting his partners.

Jim’s own interest at the SPS was in studies of the neutrino neutral-current interactions performed by the CERN-Hamburg-Amsterdam-Rome-Moscow (CHARM) Collaboration.  This included tests of the nature of the charged-current interactions, which were based on the measurement of the polarization of the muons produced upstream in the iron calorimeter of the CDHS experiment.  This required transforming CHARM’s 400 tonne marble calorimeter into a muon polarimeter.  Jim was very active in the construction of the detector and, in particular, in this transformation.

At the end of the 1970s Jim became one of the founding fathers of the DELPHI experiment.  He played an important role in the genesis of the RICH detector during the phase that led from the initial spherical detector to the final cylindrical design.  DELPHI was the first collaboration to form an interdivisional group at CERN and to separate the responsibilities of the leader of the “CERN team” from the ones of the spokesman.  Jim covered the role of Team Leader for many years with his usual dedication, efficiency and friendly style of management.  In parallel he led the DELPHI Data Acquisition Project from the design to the implementation phase in 1989.

Jim was nominated Division Leader when Carlo Rubbia was CERN Director General and in this role continued strong support for the LEP programme.  He was also put in charge of relations with the CERN non-Member States.

After completing his term as Division Leader, Jim joined the L3 Collaboration at LEP.  He made important contributions to many of the publications of L3 and was chairman of the L3 Publication Board.  After L3, he worked on the AMS Experiment, participating in the preparations for the AMS first shuttle flight and for the AMS mission on the International Space Station.

After retirement Jim became a member of the Committee of the CERN-ESO Pensioners’ Association (GAC-EPA), once more in a spirit of service to the community of the CERN pensioners and their family members.

We share our sorrow with his family and we convey our deepest condolences and sympathy to Jean and Mark.

His colleagues and friends

Jean and Mark Allaby would like to thank everyone who attended Jim’s funeral. They express their gratitude for the many kind messages, cards of condolence and generous donations to Cancer Research.

Gordon Lennox Munday was born in Birmingham in 1922.  During the second world war he served in the Home Guard. After the war he worked for Philips, then he went to the University of Birmingham where he obtained a degree in physics and chemistry.

In 1955, on the recommendation of a physicist friend, he joined the team that built the PS, the CERN Proton Synchrotron, under the guidance of John Adams.  He was responsible for building the vacuum system of the future accelerator.

Shortly after this new machine was started up, Division Leader Pierre Germain entrusted him with the task of creating a group that would support the physicist users to prepare and implement their experiments.  It was his team that managed the experimental zones, designed, implemented and operated the beams on which the physicists installed their experiments.

A third phase of his career starts in 1973 when he succeeds Peter Standley at the head of the MPS Division (Machine PS).  Under his leadership the PS, initially designed to produce and accelerate protons and secondary particles for dedicated experimental zones, was transformed into a machine with multiple functions, capable of supplying beams adapted to other accelerators and especially able to satisfy the novel needs that nobody had imagined at its construction.  The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) would be the new large machine of CERN.  It is under Gordon’s responsibility that the Antiproton Accumulator (AA) was built, which ultimately would permit the implementation of the ppbar programme, leading to the discovery of the W and Z bosons and to the Nobel Prize for CERN physicists.

Still under his mandate of Leader of the Proton Synchrotron Division, its accelerators were used to produce and pre-accelerate the electrons and positrons destined for the next large machine:  LEP.

Finally, and this is probably a less well-known part of his career, Gordon ordered the meticulous analysis of all operational aspects of the PS and started a programme of development and consolidation.  The technical and operational qualities thus established by him ensured a regular operation of the proton-antiproton collider SppbarS and of LEP into the 1990s, well after his departure into retirement.  His legacy stretches even further, into the years 2000, with the feeding of protons and ions from the PS into the LHC.

The rôle of Gordon at the PS was not limited to technical and administrative aspects.  During his long career he showed the human qualities and understanding towards his collaborators that earned him respect and devotion.  He developed and maintained a team spirit amongst the members of his Division that strongly influenced its performance and success.

After his retirement in 1987 he remained close to CERN and its personnel and accepted the rôle of President of the GAC, the Groupement des anciens du CERN.  He was their spokesman with the Organization’s leadership and he succeeded in making them take into account the worries of CERN’s retirees under circumstances that are more and more difficult.

His ex-colleagues and friends of the PS.
The GAC-EPA Committee joins them in this tribute.

Paul Déchelette passed away at the beginning of October.  We were very many to bid him our last farewell, a sure sign of his popularity, of the friendship and respect he commanded well beyond the sphere of his work.

After his youth days in Roanne (France) where he was born, Paul joined CERN in February 1959, at the time of the first experiments when everything had still to be done and to be invented. He soon joined a physics group where his qualities were immediately highly appreciated.

For him everything had to be perfect and he produced gems of precision from just a small sketch. The solutions he was able to find for numerous problems in preparing experiments made him an essential asset of the group. He was always willing to share his know-how, discreetly, always available with a high sense of responsibility, without ever putting himself forward. His black notebook in which he wrote in his beautiful writing was a reference.  It is not surprising that he made so many friends.

He was, among others, one of the pillars of the CERN Ski Club and many were the Cernois who learned to ski with him. He also knew how to enjoy life with friends on the good occasion. His wife Eliane and his children Philippe and Isabelle and their families can be assured of our fond remembrances.

Maria Fidecaro & Guiseppe Fidecaro

Frank joined CERN in 1957.  As a young lad he had started at the bottom of the ladder and became an experienced specialist in high precision grinding at the UKAEA (United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority).  At CERN he worked initially in the Central Workshop, then at the PS Linac. In 1962 he became the mechanical technician in charge of the first large neutrino experiment.  In 1963 he joined the Technical Assistance Group in the NP Division where he was responsible for supervising the Mechanical Lab and its staff until he retired.

Frank was a competent, intelligent and likeable person.  He was soft-spoken and treated everybody with respect, regardless of their hierarchical position.  At the UKAEA he had been “shop steward” and had learned to obtain results through persuasion, never resorting to authority.  He was mild and tactful but would defend his positions in a firm and clear way.  He had an eye for sorting out difficulties before they became serious.  He defended people and principles in a quiet, unassuming way.  If anything had gone wrong he would work until the causes would be identified and corrected.  In the case of people, he would be happy only if the person could be restored to a good level of confidence and efficiency.  Many saw their problems solved, but only few realized how much effort and patience Frank had invested in their case, acting more as a friend than a colleague.

Frank had an outstanding, almost uninhibited sense of humour.  He was a Londoner, very attached to his town and proud of its fierce resistence during the most difficult years of the war. From this period he derived an interest for history and was particularly well read in the world events of the last century.

Above all Frank was a man of wisdom and, in this field, definitely our senior. We learned a lot, and still have to learn, from his example.

His friends and colleagues

Henri Bertrand, or Riquet as he was known to his friends and colleagues in the old NP Division, started working at CERN in 1963 in the Technical Assistance Group at the start of a new neutrino experiment. Officially a mechanic, he participated in a number of projects where he left the mark of his intelligence and professional capacities.

He participated in the construction of large automatic cameras and of spark chambers with both parallel plate and thin foil walls. Eventually he became a specialist in the construction of multi-wire proportional chambers and it was in this capacity that he became known to a whole generation of physicists.
Each activity he undertook was marked by a determination to succeed, be it a difficult soldering operation, the repair of delicate mechanical pieces or even building a house. Many of us came to appreciate his advice and became his friends.

We will remember his lively spirit, his sense of humour, his courteous and open cordiality. His adolescence had been marked by the Second World War, during which his father, a railway worker, helped many people to escape to Switzerland. This experience was perhaps at the origin of his wisdom and humanity.
These qualities will always remain in our memory.

His friends and colleagues

We learned with great sadness that our colleague, Ernst Hugi, died on 8th March 2004.

Following a period of technical work in India, Ernst Hugi joined the CERN’s Engineering Division during the early days of the laboratory. He worked on technical aspects of the PS where he was concerned with the installation and subsequent operation of the cooling systems for the accelerator and its surrounding experimental areas.

He went on to look after the ISR cooling systems before joining the SPS Division at the beginning of the project where he studied and installed cooling and air conditioning systems for the new machine and its experimental areas.  The large amount of heat to be eliminated meant that he had to work closely with the Geneva cantonal authorities to obtain cooling water taken from the lake by the new Vengeron installations.  Because of his concern for the environment, he was very aware of the problems of wastewater disposal.  He looked after these installations until his long, productive and interesting career ended in 1989.

Many of his numerous and important achievements remain in use today, providing evidence to young engineers of Ernst Hugi’s technical skills and the great care he took in carrying out his work.

On retirement, he went to live in the peaceful and unspoiled Jura mountains.  We hope that living in an environment that he loved so much helped him during the final difficult period of his life.

We owe Ernst a great debt of gratitude for his contribution to the development of the Pensioner’s Association by launching our monthly permanences that continue to be very appreciated by CERN pensioners. We shall remember him as a skilled and conscientious engineer, able to establish excellent relations with his colleagues.

O. Bayard

(Tribute in French only)

Charles Peyrou, who was one of the outstanding personalities at CERN for thirty years, passed away on 6 April 2003.

Born in Oloron-Sainte-Marie (France) on 18 May 1918, Charles Peyrou studied at the Ecole Polytechnique, where he attended the first class given by Louis Leprince-Ringuet in 1936. Here, he was part of the small group of enthusiastic physicists who took part in the first cosmic ray experiments. In 1938, the group built its first chamber, a large Wilson chamber in a magnetic field, operating with Geiger counters. After the war, following his appointment as chief engineer of one of the large national technical institutes known as the Corps de l’Etat he was detached to his old laboratory to resume research on cosmic rays, and a system of two superimposed cloud chambers was set up at the Pic du Midi. This device proved very effective in the study of the strange particles that were starting to be detected at that time. Here, for example, the disintegration of the K meson into a muon and a neutrino was identified for the first time.

Physicists were satisfied with about fifty “good” events a year in those days but progress was being made in the accelerator field. In Europe, the construction of CERN was underway. Charles Peyrou, who was already a senior lecturer at the Ecole Polytechnique (1946-1954), became a professor at the University of Bern (1954-1958), where he continued to give a course until 1974. Flying in the face of a certain degree of scepticism, he dedicated himself entirely to the European cause.

Having joined CERN in 1957, he championed the Laboratory’s conversion to bubble chambers as head of the Bubble Chamber Group and subsequently of the Track Chamber Division in 1961, finally becoming Director of the latter’s mother department, the Physics II Department, in 1966, a post he held for ten years. His deep understanding of both physics and engineering enabled him to talk to physicists and engineers with equal authority. Thanks to his generous, strong, realistic temperament, his exceptional physics intuition, his tenacity and imagination, track chamber physics experienced remarkable progress.

He directed the construction of successive hydrogen bubble chambers, starting with an initial 10 cm chamber and moving on to a 30 cm chamber in 1959, a 200 cm chamber in 1965 and finally the BEBC, a bubble chamber with a superconducting magnet, which collected over 6 million photographs. The technological impact was important, especially for cryogenics and superconductivity. In parallel, Charles Peyrou offered valuable support to the European bubble chamber user community, helping physicists to conduct their research in the institutes of CERN’s various Member States.

When the time of the bubble chambers was over, he maintained an active interest in the life of CERN. He enjoyed discussing the latest physics results with young physicists. His energy, his enthusiasm for mathematics, his astounding memory and his articulacy made every encounter with him a memorable occasion. His organisational abilities and his great experience continued to benefit the whole laboratory even after his retirement.

Goodbye, Charles, and thank you.

(reprinted from the CERN weekly bulletin 17/2003)

It was with great sadness that we learned that our friend and former colleague passed away on Christmas Eve.

David J.Warner joined the CERN Linac Group of the Proton Synchrotron (PS) Division in 1965, already an accomplished accelerator physicist having worked on proton linacs at the University College in London and at Rutherford High Energy Laboratory. At the former institute he had studied science and earned his PhD.

The PS division remained the home basis for his 34 year long distinguished career at CERN. He participated with substantial contributions in all major linac projects of CERN: the new 50 MeV proton linac (Linac2) completed in 1978, the electron-positron LEP Injector Linac (LIL) operating from 1987 to 2001 and the Heavy Ion Linac (Linac3) which will serve, like Linac2, the LHC for the next decades. In his last years at CERN, David contributed to one of the visions of CERN’s far-future, the study of a Multi-TeV electron-positron Collider (CLIC).

David’s work had a wide span: it covered beam dynamics and calculations of linac structures, comparison of simulations with measurements, practical design and construction proposals, and work in the control rooms. He combined a thorough theoretical understanding with a strong sense for practical and pragmatic solutions. He was a leading member both of the team that set up the collaboration with LAL for LIL and the one that built Linac3.

His independent and original thinking, his competence, high standards and proverbial integrity made him the kind, respected man whose advice was often sought.

Through his natural kindness he made it a pleasure and privilege to work with him. We shall deeply miss his friendship.

Kurt Hübner

When CERN was young and cryogenics was a new and mysterious activity, Leo Scherrer ensured the supply of liquid nitrogen, hydrogen and helium for virtually all CERN activities. He was head of the liquefier, and the liquefier grew up with him, thanks to his problem-solving gifts. Tenacious as he was, Leo succeeded in overcoming the most tricky obstacles and in finding solutions in extremis for many colleagues.

He displayed a remarkable ambition to learn all the languages of our international organisation, attempting the language of any willing colleague. Soon he was able to get along in Swedish, Portuguese and Greek.

Leo retired in 1980, aged 65. He profited from the freedom of his retirement to travel in Asia and Africa, using any imaginable means of transport. His wife Anni, who could not always accompany him, now owns a collection of picture postcards worthy of a museum.

Leo’s last years were very hard. He suffered from diabetes, he lost a foot by amputation and had to spend more than two years bedridden in a residence for retired people. His wife visited him every day. The two were inseparable.

For Leo, death was a deliverance. We wish to Anni Scherrer the strength and faith to keep her vital equilibrium, which was of such great help to Leo during his last years.

Jörg SCHMID