Sidney Drell | |
|---|---|
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| Born | (1926-09-13)September 13, 1926 |
| Died | December 21, 2016(2016-12-21) (aged 90) Palo Alto, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Princeton University University of Illinois |
| Known for | Drell–Yan process |
| Children | 3, includingPersis[1] |
| Awards | E. O. Lawrence Award(1972) Pomeranchuk Prize(1998) Enrico Fermi Award(2000) Heinz Award for Public Policy(2005) National Medal of Science(2011) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | Stanford Linear Accelerator Center |
| Thesis | Part I Magnetic internal conversion coefficient Part II Electrostatic scattering of neutrons Part III Anomalous magnetic moments of nucleons (1949) |
| Doctoral advisor | Sidney Dancoff |
| Doctoral students | James Bjorken Steven Frautschi Roscoe Giles Robert Jaffe Heinz Pagels Joel Primack |
Sidney David Drell (September 13, 1926 – December 21, 2016) was an Americantheoretical physicist[2] andarms control expert.[3]
At the time of his death, he wasprofessor emeritus at theStanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and senior fellow atStanford University'sHoover Institution. Drell was a noted contributor in the fields ofquantum electrodynamics and high-energyparticle physics. TheDrell–Yan process, which was used to discover theHiggs boson, is partially named for him.[2]
Born inAtlantic City, New Jersey on September 13, 1926,[2] Drell graduated fromAtlantic City High School in 1943, at the age of sixteen.[4][5]
Drell entered Princeton for the summer term in July 1943, and worked withJosef-Maria Jauch in his junior year and completing his senior thesis "Radiating Electrons" withJohn Archibald Wheeler.[2] He earned his undergraduate degree in physics fromPrinceton University in 1946.[4] He was awarded a masters in physics in 1947 and received his PhD from theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1949. He co-authored the textbooksRelativistic Quantum Mechanics andRelativistic Quantum Fields withJames Bjorken.[2]
Drell was active as a scientific advisor to theU.S. government, and was a founding member of theJASON Defense Advisory Group.[2]He was also on the board of directors ofLos Alamos National Security, the company that operates theLos Alamos National Laboratory.[6] He was an expert in the field of nuclear arms control and cofounder of the Center for International Security and Arms Control, now the Center for International Security and Cooperation. He was a Senior Fellow at Stanford'sHoover Institution and a trustee Emeritus at theInstitute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.[7]
He was the father ofPersis Drell, former head of SLAC national accelerator lab, former dean of theStanford University School of Engineering, and (through Fall 2023) provost of Stanford University; Joanna Drell, Professor of History and chair of the Department of History at theUniversity of Richmond;[8] and Daniel Drell, a program officer at the U.S. Department of Energy. Sidney Drell died in December 2016 at his home in Palo Alto, California at the age of 90.[3]
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