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Leon M. Lederman Biography

Leon M. Lederman

Leon Max Lederman (born July 15, 1922) is an American experimental physicist who received the Wolf Prize in Physics in 1982, along with Martin Lewis Perl, for their research on quarks and leptons, and the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1988, along with Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger, for their research on neutrinos. He is Director Emeritus of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois, USA. He founded the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, in Aurora, Illinois in 1986, and has been Resident Scholar Emeritus since 2012. In 2012, he was awarded the Vannevar Bush Award for his extraordinary contributions to understanding the basic forces and particles of nature.

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Leon M. Lederman Quotes

Experimenters don’t come in late—they never went home.

Come, Experimenters, Home, Late

Those who do not stop asking silly questions become scientists.

Asking, Become, Scientist, Scientists, Silly

Where do we stand today compared to Greece circa 400 B. C. ? Today's experiment-driven 'standard model' is not all that dissimilar to Democritus's speculative [sic] atomic theory.

400, Circa, Driven, Theory, Today

He [Democritus] is probably best known for two of the most scientifically intuitive quotes ever uttered by an ancient: 'Nothing exists except atoms and space, everything else is opinion'.

Atoms, Intuitive, Probably, Space, Two

The sequence of theorist, experimenter, and discovery has occasionally been compared to the sequence of farmer, pig, truffle. The farmer leads the pig to an area where there might be truffles. The pig searches diligently for the truffles. Finally, he locates one, and just as he is about to devour it, the farmer snatches it away.

Discovery, Experimenter, Farmer, Pigs, Science

Science should have no less lofty a goal. My ambition is to live to see all of physics reduced to a formula so elegant and simple that it will fit easily on the front of a T-shirt.

Ambition, Elegant, Should Have, Simple

The aether: Invented by Isaac Newton, reinvented by James Clerk Maxwell. This is the stuff that fills up the empty space of the universe. Discredited and discarded by Einstein, the aether is now making a Nixonian comeback. It's really the vacuum, but burdened by theoretical, ghostly particles.

Aether, Clerk, Clerks, Maxwell, Science, Space

Theorists tend to peak at an early age; the creative juices tend to gush very early and start drying up past the age of fifteen-or so it seems. They need to know just enough; when they're young they haven't accumulated the intellectual baggage.

Accumulated, Juices, Knowledge, Past, Science, Start

Neutrinos. . . win the minimalist contest: zero charge, zero radius, and very possibly zero mass.

Mass, Minimalist, Neutrinos, Radius, Winning, Zero

Particle physics suffers more from being infected by the socio-political mood of the day than from lack of spectacular opportunities for major and profound discoveries.

Discovery, Mood, Opportunity, Physics, Profound

The British philosopher Bertrand Russell said that philosophy went downhill after Democritus and did not recover until the Renaissance.

Philosopher, Philosophy, Recover, Renaissance, Russell

I'm so old I can remember when the Dead Sea was only sick.

Dead, Remember, Sea, Sick

A theoretical physicist can spend his entire lifetime missing the intellectual challenge of experimental work, experiencing none of the thrills and dangers - the overhead crane with its ten-ton load, the flashing skull and crossbones and danger, radioactivity signs. A theorist's only real hazard is stabbing himself with a pencil while attacking a bug that crawls out of his calculations.

Hazard, Missing, Real, Science, Skull, Skulls

When I talk about the pain and hardship of a scientist's life, I'm speaking of more than existential angst. Galileo's work was condemned by the Church; Madame Curie paid with her life, a victim of leukemia wrought by radiation poisoning. Too many of us develop cataracts. None of us gets enough sleep. Most of what we know about the universe we know thanks to a lot of guys (and ladies) who stayed up late at night.

Angst, Enough, Night, Pain, Sleep, Work

We hope to explain the entire universe in a single, simple formula that you can wear on your T-shirt.

Entire, Formula, Shirts, Simple, Single, T Shirt

Theorists write all the popular books on science: Heinz Pagels, Frank Wilczek, Stephen Hawking, Richard Feynman, et al. And why not? They have all that spare time.

Book, Science, Stephen, Theorists, Writing

My children have often asked me why I never received a Nobel Prize. I used to tell them it was because the Nobel committee couldn’t make up its mind which of my projects to recognize.

Children, Couldnt, Mind, Nobel, Prize, Used

I started out as a molecules kid. In high school and early college I loved chemistry, but I gradually shifted toward physics, which seemed cleaner - odorless, in fact.

College, Fact, Kids, School

I sometimes think about the tower at Pisa as the first particle accelerator, a (nearly) vertical linear accelerator that Galileo used in his studies.

Linear, Science, Studies, Thinking, Towers, Used

The real goal of physics is to come up with an equation that could explain the universe but still be small enough to fit on a T-shirt

Equation, Goal, Physics, Real, Science, Universe