Deep Thoughts Notes from the underground by Communications Director Constance Walter Monday, March 23, 2015 ‘A giant among men’ South Dakota native won 75 years ago n 1928, 27-year-old Ernest Lawrence Ileft the security of Yale to become an assistant professor in the , Berkeley’s fledgling department. Friends predicted he would “quickly go to seed in the unscientific climate of the west,” Luis Alvarez wrote in a biography of Lawrence. They couldn’t have been more wrong. Just 11 years later, Lawrence received the for his inven- tion of the , the world’s first . Lawrence grew up in Canton, S.D., where his father served as superintendent Ernest Orlando Lawrence sitting on a hillside above the 184-inch cyclotron, circa 1950s. Photo of schools. After graduating from high courtesy of Berkeley Lab. school, Lawrence attended college at St. Olaf’s in Northfield, Minn. but returned to principles developed by Lawrence will the first atomic bombs. Later, Lawrence was his native state one year later to finish his be reflected in LBNF and used to study part of an effort that sought an international bachelor’s degree. He went on to receive neutrinos,” said Jaret Heise, Director of agreement to suspend atomic bomb testing. his Ph.D. from Yale in 1925. Science at Sanford Lab. On February 29, 1940, Ernest Lawrence From early childhood, Lawrence Lawrence called his first cyclotron, which accepted the Nobel for his invention in a demonstrated scientific ingenuity and had a 5-inch accelerating chamber, his pro- ceremony held at UC Berkeley—the war daring, wrote Alvarez, a Nobel Laureate. ton merry-go-round. Lynn Yarris, a writer made international travel nearly impossible. Lawrence and his childhood friend Merle for LBNL, described it as “a pie-shaped In his acceptance speech, he expressed “a Tuve built and flew gliders and constructed concoction of glass, sealing wax, and profound feeling of gratitude and apprecia- a very early short-wave radio transmitting bronze. A kitchen chair and a wire-coiled tion for this great honor, which I share with station. They “carried the friendly rivalry clothes tree were also enlisted to make the all those outside who have contributed to of their boyhood days into the formative device work.” Despite it’s crude appearance, make our work possible and above all with stages of American , and all Lawrence proved that accelerating particles my valued colleagues and co-workers both nuclear have benefitted greatly to very high velocities was the best way to past and present.” from the results,” Alvarez wrote. smash open atomic nuclei. Lawrence died on , 1958, This year marks 75 years since Lawrence would go on to develop far of a chronic illness. He was 57 years Lawrence accepted the Nobel. His work in more sophisticated that required old. Alvarez, his friend and colleague, the field of nuclear science runs deep—all more space. In 1931, Berkeley turned wrote, “For those who had the good the way back to South Dakota and Sanford over its Civil Engineering Testing Lab to fortune to be close to him both person- Lab. Lawrence Livermore National Lawrence and renamed it the Radiation ally and scientifically he will always Laboratory (LLNL) and Lawrence Laboratory. It housed the 27-inch, 36-inch, seem a giant among men. He will always Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) are and 60-inch cyclotrons. In 1946, a new be remembered as the inventor of the named for him and both are connected facility was built for his 184-inch cyclotron. cyclotron, but more importantly, he to the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) During World War II, Lawrence worked should be remembered as the inventor of experiment. “The particle accelerator on the , which produced the modern way of doing science.”

Reminder: All Hands Meeting Friday, March 27, 7:00 a.m. at the E&O Conference Room

South Dakota Science and Technology Authority Lead, South Dakota