Biography:Simon van der Meer
| Simon van der Meer | |
|---|---|
| |
| Van der Meer | |
| Born | 24 November 1925 The Hague, Netherlands |
| Died | 4 March 2011 Geneva, Switzerland
|
| Known for | Stochastic cooling; W and Z boson discovery |
| Awards | Nobel Prize in Physics (1984) |
Simon van der Meer (1925-2011) was a Dutch accelerator physicist. His stochastic cooling technique was crucial for the proton-antiproton collider work that led to discovery of the W and Z bosons at CERN.
Accelerator physics
Stochastic cooling made it possible to reduce the spread of particle beams and create the conditions needed for high-energy proton-antiproton collisions. This technical breakthrough was essential to the CERN experiments that observed the W and Z bosons.
Van der Meer shared the 1984 Nobel Prize in Physics with Carlo Rubbia.
Quantum Collection links
References
- "Simon van der Meer - Biographical". Nobel Prize Outreach. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1984/meer/biographical/.
- "Simon van der Meer". https://home.cern/about/who-we-are/our-history/biographies/simon-van-der-meer.
Author: Harold Foppele