Simon van der Meer and his legacy to CERN and particle accelerators

Abstract

Simon van der Meer was a brilliant scientist and a true giant in the field of accelerators. His seminal contributions to accelerator science are essential to this day in our quest to satisfy the demands of modern particle physics. Whether we are talking of long-baseline neutrino physics or antiproton-proton physics at CERN and Fermilab, or proton-proton physics at the LHC, his techniques and inventions have been a vital and necessary part of modern-day successes. Simon van der Meer and Carlo Rubbia were the first CERN scientists to become Nobel laureates in Physics in 1984. His less well-known contributions spanned a whole range of subjects in accelerator science from magnet design to power supply design, beam measurements, slow beam extraction, sophisticated programs, and controls.