Sir John Adams: His Legacy to the World of Particle Accelerators

John Adams acquired an unrivalled reputation for his leading part in designing and constructing the PS in CERN’s early days. In 1968, and after several years heading a fusion laboratory in the UK, he came back to Geneva to pilot the SPS project to approval and then to direct its construction. At the time of his untimely death in 1984 he had built Europe’s two largest proton accelerators at CERN. He went on, during the second of his terms as DG, to lay the groundwork for the proton-antiproton collider which led to the discovery of the intermediate vector boson. How did someone without any formal academic qualification achieve this? What was the magic behind his leadership? How did he achieve political success with the Member States of CERN in turning the almost hopeless quest for approval of the SPS to CERN’s advantage? How did he view his US counterpart, R. R. Wilson? The speaker, who worked many years alongside Adams, will discuss these questions and speculate on how Sir John Adams might have viewed today’s CERN.