Charles Peyrou 1918-2003
Charles Peyrou, who was one of the outstanding personalities at CERN for more than 30 years, passed away on 6 April 2003.
Born in Oloron-Sainte-Marie, France, on 18 May 1918, Peyrou studied at the Ecole Polytechnique, where he attended the first class given by Louis Leprince-Ringuet in 1936. Here, he was part of the small group of enthusiastic physicists who took part in the first cosmic-ray experiments. In 1938 the group built its first chamber, a large Wilson chamber in a magnetic field, operating with Geiger counters. After the Second World War, following his appointment as chief engineer of one of the large national technical institutes known as the Corps de l'Etat, he was detached to his old laboratory to resume research on cosmic rays, and a system of two superimposed cloud chambers was set up at the Pic du Midi in the Pyrenees. This device proved very effective in the study of the strange particles that were starting to be detected at the time. Here, for example, the disintegration of the K meson into a muon and a neutrino was identified for the first time.
Physicists were satisfied with about 50 "good" events a year in those days, but progress was being made in the accelerator field. In Europe, the construction of CERN was underway. Peyrou, who was already a senior lecturer at the Ecole Polytechnique (1946-1954), became a professor at the University of Bern (1954-1958), where he continued to give a course until 1974. Flying in the face of a certain degree of scepticism, he dedicated himself entirely to the European cause.
Having joined CERN in 1957, he championed the laboratory's conversion to bubble chambers as head of the Bubble Chamber Group and subsequently of the Track Chamber Division in 1961, finally becoming director of the latter's mother department, the Physics II Department, in 1966, a post he held for 10 years. His deep understanding of both physics and engineering enabled him to talk to physicists and engineers with equal authority. Thanks to his generous, strong, realistic temperament, his exceptional physics intuition, his tenacity and imagination, track physics experienced remarkable progress.
He directed the construction of successive hydrogen bubble chambers, starting with an initial 10 cm chamber and moving on to a 30 cm chamber in 1959, a 200 cm chamber in 1965 and finally BEBC, a bubble chamber with a superconducting magnet, which collected more than 6 million photographs. The technological impact was important, especially for cryogenics and superconductivity. In parallel, Peyrou offered valuable support to the European bubble-chamber user community, helping physicists to conduct their research in the institutes of CERN's various member states.
When the time of the bubble chambers was over, he maintained an active interest in the life of CERN. He enjoyed discussing the latest physics results with young physicists, and his energy, enthusiasm for mathematics, astounding memory and articulacy made every encounter with him a memorable one. His organizational abilities and great experience continued to benefit the whole laboratory even after his retirement.
Goodbye Charles, and thank you.
Igor Nikolaevich Ivanov 1938-2003
On 1 March Igor Nikolaevich Ivanov, deputy director of the Laboratory of Particle Physics of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), died. Since 1959, when he first arrived in Dubna as a student of theoretical physics at Voronezh University, his life had been intimately connected with JINR.
From 1969, Ivanov worked with a group on the theoretical basis for a new collective method of acceleration, which had been suggested by Vladimir Veksler. Ivanov obtained important theoretical results on the stability and focussing of the electron ring, and on relativistic effects in the screened high-current beams.
In his last decade, he contributed much to the LHC, TESLA and CLIC projects, and to the development of an ecological accelerator. Under his guidance, and in close contact with specialists from CERN, activities were started on the development of the LHC transverse oscillation damping system, with a tremendous amount of work put in, from design to the industrial prototype. At present, the construction of the system is in its final stage.
Ivanov also devoted much time and effort to training young scientists. He lectured on accelerator subjects to students, and was the initiator and organizer of seminars and schools for young scientists.