Simon van der Meer Quotes

Netherlands, Physicist
November 24, 1925 – March, 4, 2011.

Simon van der Meer was a Dutch particle accelerator physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1984 with Carlo Rubbia for contributions to the CERN project which led to the discovery of the W and Z particles, two of the most fundamental constituents of matter.

Nevertheless, if I have at times been able to make original contributions in the accelerator field, I cannot help feeling that to a certain extent my slightly amateur approach in physics, combined with much practical experience, was an asset.

Simon van der Meer
Under these conditions it is not astonishing that learning was highly prized; in fact, my parents made sacrifices to be able to give their children a good education.

Simon van der Meer

Since then, I have worked with the group that commissioned and improved the ring and that is now preparing the construction of a second ring to increase the p stacking rate by an order of magnitude.

Simon van der Meer
- Group
- Construction
- Ring
My father was a schoolteacher and my mother came from a teacher's family.

Simon van der Meer
- Family
- Father
- Teacher
My interest in matters more directly concerned with the handling of particles was growing, in the meantime, stimulated by many contacts with people understanding accelerators.

Simon van der Meer
At this time, my work on the SPS power supplies had just come to an end; I joined a study group on the pp project and an experimental team studying cooling in a small ring (ICE).

Simon van der Meer
- Power
- Studying
- Cooling
I visited the Gymnasium in The Hague and passed my final examination (in the sciences section) in 1943.

Simon van der Meer
- Examination
- Gymnasium
After developing a primitive theory (1968) I therefore did not pursue this subject. However, the work was taken up by others and in 1974 the first experiments were done in the ISR.

Simon van der Meer