| 1 | Name: | Dr. Leon M. Lederman | |
| Institution: | Fermi National Accelerator Lab & Illinois Institute of Technology | ||
| Year Elected: | 1989 | ||
| Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 106. Physics | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Deceased | ||
| Birth Date: | 1922 | ||
| Death Date: | October 3, 2018 | ||
Leon Lederman was an internationally renowned specialist in high energy physics and winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics. He was involved in the discovery that there is more than one type of neutrino and led the team that found the 'bottom quark'. He retired in 1989 after ten years as the Director of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. That year he became the Frank L. Sulzberger Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago, while continuing to promote science education. After receiving his B.A. from New York City College, Columbia University awarded him an M.A. in 1948 and a Ph.D. in 1951. Dr. Lederman was associated with Columbia as both student and faculty member for more than thirty years. From 1962 to 1989 he was Director of Nevis Laboratories in Irvington, which is the Columbia Physics Department's center for experimental research in high energy physics. In addition to his own research career and administrative activities, Dr. Lederman has long recognized the importance of science education in the intellectual and economic health of society. In 1998, he became Resident Scholar at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, a three-year residential public school for gifted Illinois high school students, which he helped found in 1986. Dr. Lederman published well over 300 papers and is the author of two popular science books: From Quarks to the Cosmos (with David Schramm) and The God Particle with Dick Teresi. He edited Portraits of Great American Scientists, written with fifteen high school students. The recipient of numerous honors and prizes, he shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics with Jack Steinberger and Mel Schwartz for their work on neutrinos. He was also the recipient of the Enrico Fermi Prize, the 1973 National Medal of Science, and the 1982 Wolf Prize. He was elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society in 1989. Leon Lederman died October 3, 2018 in Rexburg, Idaho at the age of 96. | |||