John P. Blewett
(1910-2000)
Picture courtesy of Brookhaven National Laboratory
JOHN P. BLEWETT
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John P. Blewett |
Long time IEEE Member and Fellow (A’43, M’55, SM’56, F’64, LF’78) John Blewett died on April 7, 2000, just a few days before his 90th birthday. Over his lifetime, Dr. Blewett made many outstanding contributions to Particle Accelerator Physics and Technology and was a true pioneer of the field. He was an active IEEE member serving a term as an elected member of the IEEE-NPSS ADCOM and was awarded the Centennial and Millennium medals.
Major revolutionary contributions were:
In 1945 he predicted and in 1947 observed synchrotron radiation from a circularly confined electron beam.
He first applied Alternating Gradient Focusing to Linear Accelerators thereby achieving immense increases in beam intensity.
He was a significant player in the building of the first alternating gradient synchrotrons, both the AGS at Brookhaven and the PS at CERN.
Among many other contributions were those to the development of split-anode magnetrons, microwave systems and low energy betatrons and synchrotrons.
John obtained his MA in physics form the University of Toronto and his PhD from Princeton University. He spent a year in the Cavendish Laboratory under Lord Rutherford. The General Electric Company then employed him for the next 10 years. It was at G.E. that his synchrotron radiation work took place and establishes him as one of the founders of synchrotron light sources. He then moved to Brookhaven National Laboratory for the remainder of his career. It was there that he made most of his major contributions to the rapidly burgeoning field of high-energy accelerators both circular and linear and storage rings.
He coauthored, with M. Stanley Livingston, one of the first comprehensive text books on the theory and technology of particle accelerators and was the founding editor of the periodical publication “Particle Accelerators” (G&B publishers). As a sought after consultant and advisor, his influence was significant in many existing accelerators and synchrotron light sources. In 1976 he received the IEEE-NPSS Merit award and in 1993 he was awarded the Robert R. Wilson prize of the American Physical Society. In addition to his IEEE Fellowship, he was a Fellow of the APS and the AAAS.
Those of us who were privileged to know John found him to be a very warm and engaging person.
This rememberance of John Blewett was prepared by Matt Allen at SLAC, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Mail Stop 24, Menlo Park, CA 94025; Phone: +1 650-926-2820; Fax: +1 650 926- 8657; E-mail: matallen@slac.stanford.edu