Robert S. Livingston, a pioneer in nuclear science research and in ion source and cyclotron development, died March 6, 2002 in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was born in Summerland, California on September 20, 1914. He received his Bachelors degree from Pomona College and his PhD in nuclear physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1941. He was a Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a Senior Fellow of the American Physical Society, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Upon receiving his PhD, he joined the E. O. Lawrence cyclotron and Calutron magnetic isotope separator development effort. In 1943 he moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as Research Superintendent of Calutron process improvement at the Y-12 facility. With the phase-out of Calutron development in 1950 his organization became a part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory as the Electronuclear Research Division. He served as Division Director until 1971 when he was appointed Director of the Office of the Laboratory Program Planning and Analysis.

He was very active in IEEE affairs having served as Chairman of the Technical Committee on Particle Accelerator Science and Technology of the IEEE Nuclear Sciences Society, as President of the society, and as a member of the IEEE Fellow Selection Committee. In 1963 while President of the society he led the organization of the 1965 IEEE Particle Accelerator Conference which he chaired. He also chaired the 1967 meeting. Since then seventeen very successful meetings have been held biannually.

He was co-organizer of the first International Cyclotron Conference held in Sea Island, Georgia, in 1959, Chairman of the 1966 meeting held in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and a member of the Organizing Committee for many years. The conference has typically been held triennially with sites alternating between the U.S. and other countries.

He served on many committees and panels. He  was chairman of the National Academy of Sciences Ad Hoc committee on Heavy-Ion Sources that led to a multi-year program at several laboratories, and Chairman of the Nuclear Physical Panel of the DOE/NSF Nuclear Science Advisory Committee that recommended construction of a high-current, continuos- beam, high-energy electron accelerator. The latter recommendation ultimately led to the creation of the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.

During and following the last days of Calutron development some units were set aside for separation of highly alpha-active nuclides. Highly enriched U²³⁴, U²³⁵, and U²³⁸ were produced in the early years and, with the addition of double containment protection, very pure Pu²³⁹, Pu²⁴⁰, Pu²⁴¹, and Pu²⁴². As part of the effort, plutonium fuel elements were produced jointly by Oak Ridge and Los Alamos and irradiated at the high-flux MTR reactor at Idaho Falls, Idaho, to provide feed with a much higher concentration of the heavier isotopes.

During his tenure with the Electronuclear Division, five cyclotrons were built. The first two (1949-1951) were very low energy test machines. They were followed by the 63-inch Cyclotron (28 Mev N +3 ions) in 1952, the 86-inch Cyclotron (22 Mev protons) in 1953, and the Oak Ridge Isochronous Cyclotron (multi-particle, variable energy, 70 Mev protons, 100 Mev alphas) in 1962. The 63-inch cyclotron was notable as it was the first designed solely for heavy ion acceleration; it was used for energy-loss and nuclear reaction studies. The 86-inch cyclotron was the highest energy non-isochronous cyclotron ever built and the most powerful. It supported an extensive program of nuclear cross-section measurements and with beam currents exceeding 1 mA (22 kW). With sophisticated targetry it was the premier isotope producer for more than two decades. The Oak Ridge Isochronous Cyclotron supported a broad program of light-ion and heavy-ion nuclear physics using an internal ion source until 1980 when it began operation with beam injection from a newly installed 25 MV tandem electrostatic accelerator. With external injection, the maximum useful ion mass was increased from 40 to about 200. The ORIC currently operates mainly to produce intense light-ion beams used to produce radioactive isotopes that are then ionized and accelerated by the 25 MV tandem.