Rest in peace, Alvin

[Visit Site for Honoring Alvin Tollestrup]

[Fermilab News]

Alvin Tollestrup, visionary scientist at our laboratory, died on Feb. 9 at the age of 95. Tollestrup was the recipient of the National Medal of Technology, the Robert R. Wilson Prize of the American Physical Society, and the IEEE Superconductivity Award. He was elected to the National Academy of Science. He is also the namesake of the Tollestrup Award for Postdoctoral Research, which the Universities Research Association has presented annually since 2003.Tollestrup arrived at Fermilab in July 1975 on a sabbatical and joined the Fermilab staff in 1978. He became head of the newly created Collider Detector Facility and later became a founding member of the CDF collaboration, serving as its co-spokesperson from its inception in 1983 until 1992. During the 1990s Tollestrup was also a founding member of the Neutrino Factory and Muon Collider collaboration, later called Muon Accelerator Program. A more detailed remembrance of Tollestrup’s life will be posted in the near future. Interment will be private, and memorial plans are pending.

[About Alvin Tollestrup]

Alvin Tollestrup began his particle physics career as a graduate student in 1946 at Caltech and remained there as a professor and experimental physicist for 25 years. In 1975 he arrived at Fermilab on sabbatical, intending to stay only six months. He began working on superconducting accelerator technology and his short stay became a 30-year career at the Laboratory. During these years Tollestrup played a significant role in the development of the Tevatron as the world’s leading high-energy physics accelerator. His early work at Fermilab led to the trailblazing design, testing and commissioning of 1,000 superconducting magnets into the Energy Doubler/Saver, the first large-scale application of superconductivity. For this achievement he was awarded the National Medal of Technology in 1989. As founding co-spokesman of the CDF collaboration, Tollestrup also played a key role in the creation of Fermilab’s colliding beams program searching for and leading to the 1995 discovery of the top quark.