History and Archives

Dr. Victor F. Weisskopf, the world-renowned high energy physicist, described another world-famous scientist as a physicist, engineer, architect and sculptor.

The man he was describing--before 400 persons from around the world attending an international symposium in the man's honor--was Dr. Robert R. Wilson, Fermilab's first director and now director emeritus. During the all-day symposium and an evening banquet, speaker after speaker recalled the moments of inspiration they drew from their association with, as they all called him, "Bob." They praised his foresight, his impressive contributions to high energy physics and his tenacious perseverance that almost always got the job done on or ahead of time and frequently under budget.

It clearly was Bob Wilson's day, a mixture of renewed acquaintances, friendly anecdotes, exchanges of serious physics, but above all, the opportunity for people to show the dedicated high energy physicist their respect. It was a day accentuated with repeated applause for the serious words that lauded him and with laughter for the humorous stories that have helped make Wilson the legend that he is.

PHILIP LIVDAHL, Fermilab acting director... "It's a privilege and an honor to welcome all of you to Fermilab today." "The Laboratory is thrilled and privileged on this occasion to honor our friend, colleague and hero, Bob Wilson."

DR. NORMAN F. RAMSEY, former president of Universities Research Association Inc. He served as chairman of the symposium's morning session.

DR. LEON LEDERMAN, director designate of Fermilab who is scheduled to become director on June l... He praised Wilson for his impressive achievements, bringing many of them in ahead of time and usually under budget. He reviewed the experiments conducted in nearly every area of high energy physics and concluded that the "scope of the effort in this laboratory is mind boggling." He further praised Wilson's leap frog approach over the present state of the art, in which Fermilab would take a giant step forward by building an Energy Doubler, using it to make a Tevatron that could put 1,000 GeV protons on fixed targets, and building a colliding beam facility where 1,000 GeV protons would collide with 1,000 GeV antiprotons.

WOLFGANG PAUL, Physics Institute, University of Bonn... In his talk on the history of accelerators, Paul took a brief diversion from the main theme. He said an academic environment has a tendency to be more creative than large laboratory (non-academic) settings because the faculty members have to teach young people. They teach at the limits of their knowledge and consequently push those limits farther and farther to show that the limits can be extended.

S. CHANDRASEKHAR, Morton D. Hull distinguished service professor at the University of Chicago and one of the world's foremost astrophysicists... He extracted from the world's literature fragments of the thoughts of great writers and scientists that link together science and beauty in ways many persons would not have preceived. He referred to Einstein as a man who never let the beauty of what he was doing escape from his thoughts. He mentioned the common bonds in the works of Newton, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Heisenberg, Plato, Hurne, Kepler, Rarnanujan (the brilliant Indian mathematician) and many others. Chandrasekhar ended his talk saying: "Each person can achieve beauty in his quest for science."

PROF. MILTON G. WHITE, new president of URA and Eugene Higgins professor emeritus at Princeton University... He served as chairman of the afternoon session. He said he has "known Bob longer than anyone else in this room." White said Wilson made considerable progress because of his creative instincts. "I truly have admired his enormous contributions to art and science."

DR. HANS A. BETHE, Nobel laureate and professor emeritus at Cornell University... He told about the influence he and Wilson had on each other and how Wilson's creativity was apparent years ago when he was working with some of the greatest personalities in high energy physics, such as Robert Oppenheimer and E. 0. Lawrence. Wilson impressed Bethe as a person who could beat records and overcome challenges.

DR. VICTOR F. WEISSKOPF, world-famous high energy physicist and professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology... He said greatness cannot be unidimensional, that art and science in many ways are inseparable and serve to complement one another. Together they make a better person, one who can enter unchartered dimensions with great confidence. Wilson is this kind of a man, one who has effectively used a blend of art and science, he said.

Wilson Responds...

Dr. Robert R. Wilson, Fermilab's director emeritus, shunned the praise he had heard during an all-day international symposium and elegant evening banquet, both in his honor April 27.

He told the more than 500 persons from around the world who had come to honor him that "I'm overwhelmed. Such distinguished speakers, such emotion, such elegance." But it's not him they should be praising, he said.

"When you work with people, you become their creation. You become the creation of your friends. They are the ones deserving of the praise we have heard here today."

He also said that no matter what a person has accomplished, it somehow always involves a collaboration. And with that he asked his wife, Jane, to stand with him at the podium. As they stood together holding hands, the audience at the banquet rose and gave them an enthusiastic and sustained ovation. Wilson then reminisced about "the places we have been, the friends we have made." Then he ended his remarks by saying:

"And now I'm trying to look each one of you in the eye and tell you that you are the best and dearest friends in all the world."