Leon Max Lederman is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
experimental physicist and
Nobel Prize in PhysicsThe Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
laureate for his work with
neutrinoA neutrino is an electrically neutral, weakly interacting elementary subatomic particle with a half-integer spin, chirality and a disputed but small non-zero mass. It is able to pass through ordinary matter almost unaffected...
s. He is Director Emeritus of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in
Batavia, IllinoisBatavia was founded in 1833, and is the oldest city in Kane County, Illinois, with a small portion in DuPage County. During the Industrial Revolution, Batavia became known as ‘The Windmill City’ for being the largest windmill producer of the time...
, USA. He founded the
Illinois Mathematics and Science AcademyThe Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, or IMSA, is a three-year residential public high school located in Aurora, Illinois, USA, with an enrollment of approximately 650 students...
, in
Aurora, IllinoisAurora is the second most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and the 112th largest city in the United States. A suburb of Chicago, located west of the Loop, its population in 2010 was 197,899. Originally founded within Kane County, Aurora's city limits have expanded greatly over the past...
in 1986, and has served in the capacity of Resident Scholar since 1998.
Career
Lederman graduated from the
James Monroe High SchoolFor schools with a similar name, see James Monroe High School.James Monroe High School was a comprehensive high school located at 1300 Boynton Avenue and E 172nd Street in the Soundview section of the Bronx....
in the
South BronxThe South Bronx is an area of the New York City borough of The Bronx. The neighborhoods of Tremont, University Heights, Highbridge, Morrisania, Soundview, Hunts Point, and Castle Hill are sometimes considered part of the South Bronx....
. He received his
bachelor's degreeA bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
from the
City College of New YorkThe City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
in 1943, and received a
Ph.D.Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
from
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in 1951. He then joined the Columbia faculty and eventually became Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics. He took an extended leave of absence from Columbia in 1979 to become Fermilab's director. He resigned from Columbia and Fermilab in 1989 and taught briefly at the
University of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
before moving to
Illinois Institute of TechnologyIllinois Institute of Technology, commonly called Illinois Tech or IIT, is a private Ph.D.-granting university located in Chicago, Illinois, with programs in engineering, science, psychology, architecture, business, communications, industrial technology, information technology, design, and law...
, where he currently serves as the Pritzker Professor of Science. In 1991, Lederman became President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Lederman is also one of the main proponents of the "
Physics FirstPhysics First is an educational program that teaches a basic physics course in the ninth grade , rather than the biology course which is more standard in public schools. This course relies on the limited math skills that the students have from pre-algebra and algebra I...
" movement. Also known as "Right-side Up Science" and "Biology Last," this movement seeks to rearrange the current high school science curriculum so that physics precedes chemistry and biology.
A former president of the
American Physical SocietyThe American Physical Society is the world's second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The Society publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including the world renowned Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, and organizes more than 20...
, Lederman also received the
National Medal of ScienceThe National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social sciences, biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and...
, the
Wolf Prize and the Ernest O. Lawrence Medal. Lederman serves as President of the Board of Sponsors of The
Bulletin of the Atomic ScientistsThe Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is a nontechnical online magazine that covers global security and public policy issues, especially related to the dangers posed by nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction...
. He also served on the board of trustees for Science Service, now known as
Society for Science & the PublicSociety for Science & the Public , formerly known as Science Service, is a 5013 non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of science, through its science education programs and publications, including the weekly Science News magazine.Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the organization...
, from 1989-1992. He was called a "modern day Leonardo Da Vinci" by the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry .
Among his achievements are the discovery of the
muon neutrinoThe muon |mu]] used to represent it) is an elementary particle similar to the electron, with a unitary negative electric charge and a spin of ½. Together with the electron, the tau, and the three neutrinos, it is classified as a lepton...
in 1962 and the
bottom quarkThe bottom quark, also known as the beauty quark, is a third-generation quark with a charge of − e. Although all quarks are described in a similar way by the quantum chromodynamics, the bottom quark's large bare mass , combined with low values of the CKM matrix elements Vub and Vcb, gives it a...
in 1977. These helped establish his reputation as among the top particle physicists.
In 1977, a group of physicists led by Leon Lederman announced that a particle with a mass of about 6.0 GeV was being produced by the Fermilab particle accelerator. The particle's initial name was the greek letter
UpsilonUpsilon is the 20th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 400. It is derived from the Phoenician waw. The name of the letter is pronounced in Modern Greek, and in English , , or...
(
). After taking further data, the group discovered that this particle did not actually exist, and the "discovery" was named "
Oops-LeonOops-Leon is the name given by particle physicists to what was thought to be a new subatomic particle "discovered" at Fermilab in 1976. The E288 collaboration, a group of physicists led by Leon Lederman who worked on the E288 particle detector, announced that a particle with a mass of about 6.0...
" as a pun on the original name (
mispronouncedThis table gives the common English pronunciation of Greek letters using the International Phonetic Alphabet It is the pronunciation of the ancient Greek names of the Greek letters using the English teaching pronunciation...
ˈjuːpsɨlɒn) and Dr. Lederman's first name.
In 1988, Lederman received the Nobel Prize for Physics along with
Melvin SchwartzMelvin Schwartz was an American physicist. He shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics with Leon M. Lederman and Jack Steinberger for their development of the neutrino beam method and their demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino.He grew up in...
and
Jack SteinbergerJack Steinberger is a German-American physicist currently residing near Geneva, Switzerland. He co-discovered the muon neutrino, along with Leon Lederman and Melvin Schwartz, for which they were given the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics.-Life:...
"for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino". Among the Nobel Prize and other honors, Lederman received the National Medal of Science (1965), the
Elliott Cresson MedalThe Elliott Cresson Medal, also known as the Elliott Cresson Gold Medal, was the highest award given by the Franklin Institute. The award was established by Elliott Cresson, life member of the Franklin Institute, with $1,000 granted in 1848...
for Physics (1976), the Wolf Prize for Physics (1982) and the
Enrico Fermi AwardThe Enrico Fermi Award is an award honoring scientists of international stature for their lifetime achievement in the development, use, or production of energy. It is administered by the U.S. government's Department of Energy...
(1992).
Lederman was an early supporter of
Science Debate 2008Science Debate 2008 was a grassroots campaign to call for a public debate in which the candidates for the 2008 U.S. presidential election discuss issues relating to the environment, health and medicine, and science and technology policy. The effort was co-chaired by U.S. House representatives...
, an initiative to get the then-candidates for president,
Barack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
and
John McCainJohn Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
, to debate the nation's top science policy challenges. In October 2010, Lederman participated in the
USA Science and Engineering FestivalUSA Science and Engineering Festival was a science festival in Washington, D.C. that founder Larry Book deemed the country’s first national science festival. The inaugural event was held from October 10, 2010 through October 24, 2010 and was planned to be a yearly event. The two week festival...
's Lunch with a Laureate program where middle and high school students got to engage in an informal conversation with a Nobel Prize winning Scientist over a brown bag lunch. Lederman was also a member of the
USA Science and Engineering FestivalUSA Science and Engineering Festival was a science festival in Washington, D.C. that founder Larry Book deemed the country’s first national science festival. The inaugural event was held from October 10, 2010 through October 24, 2010 and was planned to be a yearly event. The two week festival...
's Advisory Board and CRDF Global.
Personal life
Dr. Lederman was born in
New YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to a family of Jewish immigrants from
RussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. His father operated a hand laundry while encouraging Leon to get his education. His father may have been a motivating force for Leon, who went far in education and life. He started school at around the age of five in 1927 at PS 92 on Broadway and 95th Street, in New York City. His education, from 1927 until 1951, when he received his Ph.D. was centered around this neighborhood or area where he grew up. This included junior and senior high schools, and City College of New York. Columbia University is only about a mile from where he went to elementary school. .
In his well received book,"
The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What is the Question? is a 1993 popular science book by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon M. Lederman and science writer Dick Teresi....
, Lederman says that, although he was a chemistry major he became fascinated with physics, because of the clarity of the logic and the unambiguous results from experimentation. His best friend during his college years,
Martin Klein, convinced him of "the splendors of physics during a long evening over many beers." After that conversation he became resolute and unwavering regarding his future; physics was for him. When he
joined the army with a B.S. in Chemistry, he was determined to become a physicist, after he got out of the army.
After three years in the army during World War II, he took up
physics
at
Columbia University, and received his Masters in 1948.
Lederman began his Ph.D research working with Columbia's Nevis
synchro-cyclotronA synchrocyclotron is a cyclotron in which the frequency of the driving RF electric field is varied to compensate for relativistic effects as the particles' velocity begins to approach the speed of light...
, which was the most powerful particle accelerator in the world at that time.
Dwight D. EisenhowerDwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
, then the president of Columbia University, and future president of the United States, cut the ribbon dedicating the synchro-cyclotron in June 1950. These atom smashers were just coming of age at this time and created the new discipline of particle physics.
After receiving his Ph.D and then becoming a faculty member at Columbia University he was promoted to full professor in 1958.
In "The God Particle" he once wrote "The history of atomism is one of reductionism - the effort to reduce all the operations of nature to a small number of laws governing a small number of primordial objects." And this was the quest he undertook. This book shows that he pursued the quark, and hopes to find the Higgs boson. The top quark, which he and other physicists realized must exist according to the standard model, was, in fact, produced at Fermilab not long after this book was published.
He is known for his sense of humor in the physics community, and to anyone who has read his book, "
The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What is the Question? is a 1993 popular science book by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon M. Lederman and science writer Dick Teresi....
", which has very humorous moments. So, on August 26, 2008 Dr. Lederman was video-recorded by a science focused organization called ScienCentral, on the street in a major U.S. city, answering questions from passersby. He answered questions such as "What is the strong force?" and "What happened before the Big Bang?".
He has three children with his first wife, Florence Gordon, and now lives with his second wife, Ellen, in Batavia, Illinois.
Publications
- The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?
The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What is the Question? is a 1993 popular science book by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon M. Lederman and science writer Dick Teresi....
by Leon M. Lederman, Dick Teresi- Author and coauthor :Dick Teresi is an American writer. He is a co-author of The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question? He is also a former editor of Omni....
(ISBN 0-385-31211-3)
- From Quarks to the Cosmos by Leon Lederman and David N. Schramm (ISBN 0-7167-6012-6)
- Portraits of Great American Scientists Leon M. Lederman, et al. (ISBN 1-57392-932-8)
- Symmetry and the Beautiful Universe Leon M. Lederman and Christopher T. Hill
Christopher T. Hill is a theoretical physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. He did undergraduate work in physics at M.I.T. , and graduate work at Caltech...
(ISBN 1-59102-242-8)
- "Quantum Physics for Poets" Leon M. Lederman and Christopher T. Hill
Christopher T. Hill is a theoretical physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. He did undergraduate work in physics at M.I.T. , and graduate work at Caltech...
(ISBN 978-1616142339)
External links