WHO'S WHO IN CERN

Bernard GREGORY 00 CD CD CD CD CM

CL Z Directorate Member for Research Of LU o

One of the decisions taken at the nuclear physics, the era of great dis­ parts one on top of the other. It was 26th Session of the Council, held last coveries made by a single person using installed near the Observatory at the December, was to appoint Professor primitive equipment is well and truly summit of the Pic du Midi de Bigorre. Bernard Gregory Directorate Member over. Since the War the emphasis has There at the same time was an experi­ for Research. He takes over this post been on 4 large-scale physics ', using mental team from the University of for the next two years and succeeds enormous machines costing millions to Manchester, including Raphaël Arm en­ Professor Gianpietro Puppi, who had run. There are few of these machines, ter os, who soon joined the French held it since September 1962. and it is all the more necessary to group, all of whose members, we may ensure their intensive exploitation with Bernard Gregory was born in 1919 mention in passing, now work at CERN. a minimum of lost time. For the at Bergerac, in the west of the French Bernard Gregory continued working 4 physicist who is somewhat of an idealist Massif Central \ He soon left this sub- with cloud chambers until 1957, when by nature this means a sudden transfer prefecture of the Dordogne, however, he took his sabbatical leave at the 4 to the planned atmosphere of the big to go up ' to Paris, where, after taking American laboratory of Brookhaven. 4 laboratories where the relatively rigid his baccalauréat ', he prepared for the organization may seem synonymous Back again, he took part, with a team entrance examinations of the higher with administration carried to extre­ scientific Institutes of France. from the French Centre for Nuclear Stu­ mes... But we are forgetting Bernard dies at Saclay, in the construction of the In 1938 he sat the entrance exami­ Gregory. In September 1947 he obtained 8 I - cm liquid-hydrogen bubble chamber. nations for the science sections of both his engineering diploma and set off, This instrument was moved in January 4 4 the Ecole Polytechnique' and the Ecole under the auspices of the 4 Corps des 1961 to CERN, where it has since Normale Supérieure '. Passing first in Mines for the U.S.A. and high-energy proved of great value to European both examinations, he chose the physics. physics. 4 École Polytechnique which he entered at the end of 1938 — for barely a year. He spent three years at the Massa­ Ever faithful to his ideals, Bernard chusetts Institute of Technology. At Gregory succeeded in combining with The war which broke out in Western that time, M.I.T. was passing through Ms research career the duties of a Europe in 1939 opened up a gap in his a period of transition : from a technical teacher. From 1953 to 1958 he was student career which was not closed institution producing engineers it was Professor of Physics at the School of until July 1945. These unproductive to become a vast research establishment Mines in Paris, and he has since been years saw Bernard Gregory first in the where scientists were to delve perpe­ teaching at the 4 École Polytechnique ', fighting forces and then within the tually into the secrets of nature. Among from where he has been given leave of confines of military prison camps. How­ the high priests of that scientific inqui­ absence for the academic year 1964- ever, his efforts to profit from these sition was Bruno Rossi, who was to be 1965. long years were so successful that, on Bernard Gregory's mentor. In the Since 1961 Professor Gregory has his return to France in July 1945, he absence of large particle accelerators, participated in experiments at CERN, was able to pass his final examination great hopes were at that time placed on 4 particularly as chairman of the com­ at the École Polytechnique '. cosmic rays and, in 1947, the most mittee of European physicists respon­ 4 advanced detector of nuclear events He then entered the Corps des sible for the track-chamber experiments was still the Wilson cloud chamber. Mines which allows some of its staff carried out at CERN. In this capacity Gregory co-operated in the running of to devote themselves to research. he has been a member, since 1960, of this type of apparatus and then in the the Scientific Policy Committee, which By this time he had decided that his analysis of the thousands of photo­ advises CERN on its overall scientific future lay in the direction of physics. graphs of nuclear events that were policy. Thus Professor Gregory has Five years of captivity had given him obtained. ample time for meditation and study had a marked influence on the experi­ and helped him to crystallize his plans He submitted a thesis to M.I.T. on mental programmes for the bubble for the future. Physics seemed to suit the interactions of cosmic-ray protons chambers at CERN. He will be a part- the career he wished to follow in the in lead and aluminium screens in a time member of the CERN Directorate related fields of education and research. cloud chamber, based on this work, and until summer 1964 and then full time Today it is amusing to hear the sardo­ obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1950. until the end of 1965. nic statement of a professor named Back in France, Bernard Gregory As a physicist specializing in sub- 4 Gregory, to the effect that physics entered the physics laboratory under nuclear particles and in the construction leads straight to administration ! '. Professor Louis Leprince-Ringuet at the of machines for detecting their inter­ Such a thought may seem to smack 4 École Polytechnique ', and joined a actions, as an eloquent teacher blessed of disillusionment. But in fact it pro­ team of high-energy physicists that with a strong voice to balance his bably reflects not only the state of included Charles Peyrou, André Lagar- otherwise calm and relaxed appearance, mind of the 4 chief ', on whom falls the rigue and, later, Francis Muller. The Professor Gregory has only one hobby burden of making vital decisions con­ detector constructed by the team was to occupy the brief moments of leisure cerning the future as much as the one of the most up to date at that time allowed him by his professional activi­ present, but also that of the contempo­ — a large cloud chamber with a capacity ties : looking after his few acres of land rary research scientist. In experimental of twice 200 litres, composed of two not far from Paris •

28