Burton Richter

Burton Richter
Born	(1931-03-22) March 22, 1931 Brooklyn, New York City
Nationality	American
Institutions	Stanford University Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
Alma mater	MIT
Doctoral advisor	Bernard T. Feld
Known for	J/ψ meson
Notable awards	E. O. Lawrence Award (1975) Nobel Prize in Physics (1976) Enrico Fermi Award (2010)
Spouse	Laurose Becker (m. 1960; 2 children)

Burton Richter (born March 22, 1931) is a Nobel Prize-winning American physicist. He led the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) team which co-discovered the J/ψ meson in 1974, alongside the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) team led by Samuel Ting. This discovery was part of the so-called November Revolution of particle physics. He was the SLAC director from 1984 to 1999.

Life

A native of New York City, Richter was born into a Jewish family in Brooklyn, and was raised in the Queens neighborhood of Far Rockaway. His parents were Fanny (Pollack) and Abraham Richter, a textile worker. He graduated from Far Rockaway High School, a school that also produced fellow laureates Baruch Samuel Blumberg and Richard Feynman. He attended Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania, then continued on to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1952 and his PhD in 1956. He was director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) from 1984 to 1999.

As a professor at Stanford University, Richter built a particle accelerator called SPEAR (Stanford Positron-Electron Asymmetric Ring) with the help of David Ritson and the support of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. With it he led a team that discovered a new subatomic particle he called a ψ (psi). This discovery was also made by the team led by Samuel Ting at Brookhaven National Laboratory, but he called the particle J. The particle thus became known as the J/ψ meson. Richter and Ting were jointly awarded the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work.

Richter was a member of the JASON advisory group and serves on the board of directors of Scientists and Engineers for America, an organization focused on promoting sound science in American government.

In May 2007, he visited Iran and Sharif University of Technology.

In 2012, President Barack Obama announced that Burton Richter was a co-recipient of the Enrico Fermi Award, along with Mildred Dresselhaus.

In 2013, Richter commented on an open letter from Tom Wigley, Kerry Emanuel, Ken Caldeira, and James Hansen, that Angela Merkel was "wrong to shut down nuclear".

In 2014, Richter was among the residents of a continuing care retirement center filing a lawsuit alleging refundable entrance fees were sent out of state. This may be the first legal complaint challenging a continuing care retirement home's financial practices. At a hearing on September 9, 2014 in Federal Court, attorneys allege Richter read the contracts, saw significant problems, and is entitled to pursue a legal judgement concerning the use of his money.

See also

• List of Jewish Nobel laureates
• List of independent discoveries

Publications

• Barber, W. C.; Richter, B.; Panofsky, W. K. H.; O'Neill, G. K. & B. Gittelman. "An Experiment on the Limits of Quantum Electro-dynamics", High-Energy Physics Laboratory at Stanford University, Princeton University, United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), Office of Naval Research, (June 1959).
• Richter, B. "Design Considerations for High Energy Electron – Positron Storage Rings", Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford University, United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (November 1966).
• Boyarski, A. M.; Coward, D.; Ecklund, S.; Richter, B.; Sherden, D.; Siemann, R. & C. Sinclair. "Inclusive Yields of pi{sup +}, pi{sup -}, K{sup +}, and K{sup -} from H{sub 2} Photoproduced at 18 GeV at Forward Angles", Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford University, United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (1971).
• Richter, B. "Total Hadron Cross Section, New Particles, and Muon Electron Events in e{sup +}e{sup -} Annihilation at SPEAR", Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford University, United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA)), (January 1976).
• Richter, B. "Forty-five Years of e{sup +}e{sup -} Annihilation Physics: 1956 to 2001", Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, United States Department of Energy, (August 1984).
• Richter, B. "Charting the Course for Elementary Particle Physics", Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, United States Department of Energy, (February 16, 2007).
• Richter, B. Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Climate Changes and Energy in the 21st Century. Second Edition. Cambridge University Press, 2014. ISBN 978-1-107-67372-4

External links

• Nobelprize.org autobiography
• Nobel Lecture (PDF format)
• The Nobel Prize in Physics 1976
• SLAC press image
• Biography and Bibliographic Resources, from the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, United States Department of Energy
• NIF Secretary of Energy Board
• A Celebration Honoring Burton Richter SLAC image gallery

Preceded by Wolfgang Panofsky

SLAC Director 1984–1999

Succeeded by Jonathan M. Dorfan