Richter, Burton
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Burton “Burt” Richter begins his interviews by discussing his childhood in the boroughs of New York City and his early education at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania. He then moves on to his time as an undergraduate and graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as well as his academic turn toward physics under the tutelage of Francis Bitter and Francis Friedman. He discusses his brief stint at Brookhaven National Laboratory and his return to MIT, where he completed his evolution into a particle physicist and carried out his PhD research. Richter next discusses his recruitment to a postdoc position at the High Energy Physics Lab at Stanford by Wolfgang Panofsky. Richter describes his role in the design and construction of the first electron-electron colliding beam machine at Stanford and his early years as a postdoc and later an assistant professor in the Physics Department at Stanford. Richter goes on to discuss the technical and bureaucratic challenges that ultimately led to the construction of the electron-positron collider and the resulting watershed research in November 1974 that led to his Nobel Prize in Physics. He also discusses the foresight of Sebastian Doniach and William Spicer to request the electron-positron collider be constructed in such a way as to release the x-rays and in so doing create a line of research that grew to become the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL). He further notes that their research not only revolutionized condensed matter physics, but also birthed Keith Hodgson’s structural biology program. Richter also discusses his yearlong sabbatical at CERN and the research that led up to the construction of the Linear Collider Project. He then elaborates on this time as lab director at SLAC under Panofsky mentorship, and finally his years as Director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). He also comments on the variety of research programs which were started during his time at Stanford, including, the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), the Fixed Target Program, the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL), and the Positron-Electron-Proton (PEP) Storage Ring. Richter concludes the interview by discussing his interest and recent work in climate and energy policy, which began in the mid-1990s and expanded when he stepped down as Director of SLAC in 1999.
Description
Type of resource | mixed material |
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Date created | May 8, 2014 - May 12, 2014 |
Creators/Contributors
Author | Richter, Burton | |
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Contributing author | Bahls, Matthew R. | |
Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Subjects
Subject | Burton Richter |
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Subject | Stanford Historical Society |
Subject | oral histories |
Subject | interviews |
Subject | high energy physics |
Subject | SLAC |
Subject | nuclear physics |
Subject | particle physics |
Bibliographic information
Related item |
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Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/xy985sh6664 |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- The materials are open for research use and may be used freely for non-commercial purposes with an attribution. For commercial permission requests, please contact the Stanford University Archives (universityarchives@stanford.edu).
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
Burton Richter (2014). Oral
history. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at:
http://purl.stanford.edu/xy985sh6664
Collection
Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2022
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