Melvin Schwartz The Nobel Prize in Physics

autobiography

Melvin Schwartz, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and former Stanford professor who founded his own pioneering Internet company in Silicon Valley, died Monday in Twin Falls, Idaho, after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease. He was 73. Dr. Schwartz earned early fame for his role in designing the arcane experiments and machines that he and his colleagues in theoretical physics needed to explore the subatomic universe of strange particles.

He taught physics at Stanford for 17 years until 1983, when he left to found a Mountain View firm called Digital Pathways, which provided systems for the secure management of data communications. His departure from the university was in part the result of his experiments requiring larger and larger machines, and the bureaucracy and grantsmanship necessary to create them becoming more onerous. His highly successful enterprise was later sold to a succession of even bigger Silicon Valley companies. "Mel was a wonderfully creative experimental physicist with a deep understanding of the theoretical aspects of the subnuclear world," said Sidney D. Drell, the retired deputy director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center who was Dr. Schwartz's close friend and co-worker when Dr. Schwartz was a group leader at the center and a Stanford professor.

Leon Lederman, the former director of Fermilab near Chicago, who shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 1988 with Dr. Schwartz and Professor Jack Steinberger of Columbia, said of his colleague: "He was brilliant, a terrific experimenter and a totally passionate guy. The spectacularly successful experiment we designed was his great idea and the forerunner of more major experiments that continue to this day."

Dr. Schwartz, who was born in New York City, became fascinated by physics when he was only 12 and entered the Bronx High School of Science, where many other future Nobel laureates studied. As an undergraduate at Columbia University, he majored in physics under the late I.I. Rabi, another Nobel laureate, and earned his doctorate under Steinberger, who became his close colleague in the work that earned the two of them and Lederman the Nobel Prize. In 1958, Dr. Schwartz joined the Columbia faculty and worked as a full professor of physics until he went to Stanford as a professor in 1966.

It was at Columbia's NEVIS laboratory in Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y., one of the early high-energy atom-smashers, that the three young physicists began studying the nature of neutrinos, ghostlike particles with no mass that have intrigued scientists for many decades. Later, using the higher energy of the synchrotron accelerator at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, N.Y., the three conducted experiments with the neutrino beam Dr. Schwartz devised, and their work -- as the Nobel committee later said -- "led to discoveries that opened entirely new opportunities for research into the innermost structure and dynamics of matter."

Dr. Schwartz did not completely cut his ties with Stanford after leaving the faculty, but remained a consulting professor there until 1991, when he returned to Columbia as a professor and associate director for high-energy and nuclear physics at Brookhaven, N.Y.

After retirement in 1997, Dr. Schwartz moved with his family to Ketchum, Idaho, and lived there until his final illness overtook him and he entered a nursing home in Twin Falls. Survivors include his wife, Marilyn; a son, David, of New York; two daughters, Diana of Chicago and Betty of San Francisco; and six grandchildren.

Having been born in 1932, at the peak of the great depression, I grew up in difficult times. My parents worked extraordinarily hard to give us economic stability but at the same time they managed to instill in me two qualities which became the foundation of my personal and professional life. One is an unbounded sense of optimism; the other is a strong feeling as to the importance of using one's mind for the betterment of mankind.

My interest in Physics really began at the age of 12 when I entered the Bronx High School of Science in New York. That school has become famous for the large number of outstanding individuals it has produced including among them four Nobel Laureates in Physics. The four years I spent there were certainly among the most exciting and stimulating of my life, mostly because of the interaction with other students having similar background, interest and ability. It's rather amazing how important the interaction with the one's peers can be at that age in determining one's direction and success in life.

Upon graduating from high school the path to follow was fairly obvious. The Columbia Physics Department at that time was unmatched by any in the world. Largely a product of the late Professor I.I. Rabi, it was a-department which was to provide the ambiance for six Nobel Prize pieces of work in widely diverse fields during the next thirteen years. And, in addition, it was the host for a period of time to another half dozen or so future Nobel Laureates either as students or as post-doctoral researchers. I know of no other institution either before or since that has come close to that record. Thus, it was that I became an undergraduate at Columbia in 1949, to stay there through my graduate years and take up a faculty position as Assistant Professor in 1958. I became an Associate Professor in 1960 and a Professor in 1963.

In order for me to put my life into perspective, I must mention four individuals who have given it meaning, direction and focus. Foremost among these is my wife Marilyn whom I married 35 years ago and who has provided the one most enduring thread throughout these years. Without her constant encouragement and enthusiasm there would have been far less meaning to my life. The second is of course Jack Steinberger. Jack was my teacher, my mentor and my closest colleague during my years at Columbia. Whatever taste and judgement I have ever had in the field of Particle Physics came from Jack. Third of course is T.D. Lee. He was the inspirer of this experiment and the person who has served as a constant sounding board for any ideas I have had. He has also become, I am proud to say, a dear personal friend. And finally, my close collaborator Leon Lederman. If there is any one person who has served as the sparkplug for high energy physics in the U.S. it has been Leon. I am proud to have been his collaborator.

In 1966, after having spent 17 years at Columbia, I decided to move West to Stanford, where a new accelerator was just being completed. During the ensuing years I was involved in two major research efforts. The first of these investigated the charge asymmetry in the decay of the long-lived neutral kaon. The second of these, which was quite unique, succeeded in producing and detecting relativistic hydrogen-like atoms each made up of a pion and a muon. During the 1970's, lured in part by the new industrial revolution in "Silicon Valley" I decided to try my hand at a totally new adventure. Digital Pathways, Inc. of which I am currently the Chief Executive Officer is a company dedicated to the secure management of data communications. Although it is difficult to predict the future I still have all the optimism that I had back when I first grew up in New York-life can be a marvelous adventure. (added in 1991): A new change in my career occurred in February 1991 when I became Associate Director, High Energy and Nuclear Physics, at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

From Nobel Lectures, Physics 1981-1990, Editor-in-Charge Tore Fr?ngsmyr, Editor G?sta Eksp?ng, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1993

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