Helen Thom Edwards
Personal Information
Born: 1936
Died: 2016
Country of Birth: USA
Nationality: USA
Ethnicity: White
Education
Cornell University BS 1957 & MS 1963 both in Physics, PhD Experimental Physics 1966
"“To begin with, there was indeed a good bit of skepticism over whether [the Tevatron] would work,” she recalled. “By the time we were ready to turn it on, I was pretty confident that it would work, and work well. I think that had to do with the many iterations of testing things, installing, re-installing and getting all the engineering to work. It began as a fixed-target machine, of course, then two years later joined up with the Pbar Source to run as a collider. So there were two major steps involved.” (fermilabcommunity.org); "
— Helen Thom Edwards
Professional Life
Field of Study: Accelerator Physics
Institution/Corporation: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Degrees & Memberships: Member: National Academy of Engineering (1988); American Academy of Arts & Sciences; American Physical Society (1984)
Awards & Achievements
Awards: 1986 E.O. Lawrence Award, US Dept of energy; 1988 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship; 1989 National Medal of Technology; 2003 Robert R. Wilson Prize for Achievement in the Physics of Particle Accelerators, American Physical Society; 1985 USPAS Prize for Achievement in Accelerator Physics & Technology
Achievements: led the design, construction & operation of Tevatron at the Fermi National Accelerator Lab & for 25 years it was the most powerful particle collider in the world; 1985 it recorded its 1st proton-antiproton collisions; 1995 it was used to find the top quark; 2000 it was used to find the tau neutrino; 1989 to 1992 was involved in the Superconducting Super Collider in Texas which was subsequently abandoned; after 1992 made significant contributions to the development of high-gradient, superconducting linear accelerators as well as bright and intense electron sources; played a key role in working with scientists at DESY to develop superconducting accelerator technology; led a Fermilab group collaborating with DESY in the 1990s and built the photoinjector for the TESLA Test Facility at the German laboratory; she & her team developed the Rutherford wire, a configuration of 23 strands of wire that had the perfect mechanical form for use in a magnet
joined Fermi National Accelerator Labs (Fermilabs) in 1970
was a nature lover
the Tevatron was decommission in 2011 & she was given the honor of throwing the switch to turn it off but it refused to shut down on the 1st try
was a "hands-on" type of person who often pulled all-nighters to work on a problem & would work on the Tevatron alongside her co-workers
often felt held back by the constraints of the bureaucracy
was devoted to her PhD students & exposed them to all aspects of her work
after retiring to Montana in the early 1990s with her husband don, a fellow physicist, the 1st thing she did was construct a birch bark canoe from scratch
put up trail cameras in remote woodlands near her home so she could photograph animals in their habitat
had a backyard telescope she attached a camera to so she could take photographs & was especially proud of pictures she took of the rings of Saturn
was allowed to throw the switch that turned off Tevatron when it was decommissioned in 2011but it refused to turn off the 1st time she tried
she & husband (Don Edwards another physicist) endowed a chair in accelerator physics at Cornell University in 2001