The Hungarian experimental physicist Valentine L.Telegdi, who died on April 8, 2006, recalls his early interest in physics and chemistry; his education as a chemical engineer at Lausanne University and eventual turn toward experimental physics; and his graduate work at ETH, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Ph.D. 1950). Goes to the University of Chicago in 1951; recollections of Enrico Fermi, Murray Gell-Mann, Leo Szilard, and other colleagues there. Recalls his work with Jerome Friedman on parity violation in muon decay and his work at CERN with Richard Garwin. Discouraged with state of physics in Chicago, he returns to ETH in 1976, with a joint appointment at CERN. Begins regular visits to Caltech in 1981; compares the style of teaching and research there with his European experience. Discusses his 1987 festschrift at CERN; Gell-Mann’s 1989 festschrift at Caltech; recollections of Richard Feynman, Gell-Mann, Edward Witten. Comments on current state of particle physics.
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Sara Lippincott is an editor specializing in books about science for the general public. Among authors she has edited are the science writers Timothy Ferris, John McPhee, and James Shreeve; the physicists John Barrow, Paul C.W. Davies, David Goodstein, Lawrence Krauss, Seth Lloyd, and Lee Smolin; and the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. She is the editor for the Caltech Archives’ Oral History Project. Requests for reprints should be directed to Judith R.Goodstein, Institute Archives 015A-74, Caltech, Pasadena CA 91125, USA; e-mail: jrg@caltech.edu.
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Lippincott, S. A Conversation with Valentine L.Telegdi – Part I. Phys. perspect. 9, 434–467 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-006-0306-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-006-0306-2
Keywords:
- Lausanne University
- Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
- University of Chicago
- CERN
- Harvard University
- Office of Naval Research
- National Science Foundation
- Fermilab
- Argonne National Laboratory
- California Institute of Technology
- University of California at San Diego
- Los Alamos
- Carl D. Anderson
- James Cronin
- Enrico Fermi
- Richard Feynman
- Jerome Friedman
- Richard Garwin
- Murray Gell-Mann
- Marvin L. Goldberger
- Werner Heisenberg
- Charles Lauritsen
- Leon Lederman
- Tsung-Dao Lee
- Wolfgang Pauli
- Paul Scherrer
- Julian Schwinger
- Arnold Sommerfeld
- Ernest C.G. Stueckelberg
- Leo Szilard
- Edward Teller
- Jacques Thirion
- Rochus E.Vogt
- Victor Weisskopf
- Eugene Wigner
- Edward Witten
- Chien-Shiung Wu
- Chen Ning Yang
- Bargmann-Michel-Telegdi equation
- chemical engineering
- nuclear physics
- particle physics
- parity violation
- superstring theory
- physics teaching
- history of physics