Leon M. Lederman
Leon Max Lederman (born
July 15,
1922 in
New York) is an
American experimental
physicist who was awarded the
Nobel Prize in Physics in
1988 for his work on
neutrinos. He is Director Emeritus of
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in
Batavia, Illinois. He founded the
Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, in
Aurora, Illinois in
1986, and has served for hte past two decades as its resident scholar.
Lederman received his
bachelor's degree from the
City College of New York in
1943, and received a
Ph.D. from
Columbia University in
1951. He then joined the Columbia faculty and eventually became
Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics. He took an extended leave of absence from Columbia in 1979 to become Fermilab's director. He resigned from Columbia and Fermilab in 1989 and taught briefly at the
University of Chicago before moving to the
Illinois Institute of Technology, where he served as the Pritzker professor of science.
Dr. Lederman is also one of the main proponents of the "
Physics First" movement. Also known as "Right-side Up Science" and "Biology Last," this movement seeks to rearrange the current high school science curriculum so that physics precedes chemistry and biology.
A former president of the
American Physical Society, Lederman also received the
National Medal of Science and the
Ernest O. Lawrence Medal. He was called a "modern day Leonardo Da Vinci" by the Chicago Museum of Science and Technology.
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The God Particle : If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question? by Leon M. Lederman, Dick Teresi (ISBN 0385312113)
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From Quarks to the Cosmos by Leon Lederman and David N. Schramm (ISBN 0716760126)
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Portraits of Great American Scientists Leon M. Lederman, et al (ISBN 1573929328)
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Symmetry and the Beautiful Universe Leon M. Lederman and Christopher T. Hill (ISBN 1591022428)
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Fermilab's Leon M. Lederman webpage* Academy of Achievement Profile http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/led0pro-1
* Academy of Achievement Biography http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/led0bio-1
* Academy of Achievement Interview http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/led0int-1
* Academy of Achievement Photo Gallery http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/led0gal-1
*
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1988*
Leon M. Lederman – Autobiography*
Timeline of Nobel Prize Winners in Physics webpage for Leon Max Lederman*
Story of Leon by Leon Lederman
