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Burton Richter
<html> <head> <title>Burton Richter</title> <meta name="googlebot" content="noodp"> <meta name="robots" content="noodp"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" href="/silly-nndb-icon.png" /><style type="text/css"> <!-- .fotmbar { color: #FFFFFF; text-decoration: none} .fotmbar:hover { color: #FFFFFF; text-decoration: underline} .newslink { color: #000000; text-decoration: none} .newslink:hover { color: #000000; text-decoration: none} .proflink { color: #000000; text-decoration: none} .proflink:hover { color: blue; text-decoration: underline} .b1f, .b2f, .b3f, .b4f {font-size:1px; overflow:hidden; display:block;} .b1f {height:1px; background:#e6e6e6; margin:0 5px;} .b2f {height:1px; background:#e6e6e6; margin:0 3px;} .b3f {height:1px; background:#e6e6e6; margin:0 2px;} .b4f {height:2px; background:#e6e6e6; margin:0 1px;} .contentf {background: #e6e6e6; padding: 2px; } .contentf div {margin-left: 5px;} --> </style></head> <body bgcolor=#ffffff> <center> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr><td valign=top><table width=550 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td bgcolor=white><table width="100%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" background="/nndb.gif"> <tr> <td rowspan="2" align="left" valign="top"><a href="http://www.nndb.com/"><img src="/title.gif" width="260" height="50" border=0 alt="NNDB"></a></td> <td><table width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6"> <tr align="center"> <td width="25%" nowrap><b><font size="-1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is a beta version of NNDB</font></b></td> </tr> </table></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="middle"><b><font size="-1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <form action="http://search.nndb.com/search/nndb.cgi" method="get"> <input type="hidden" name="nndb" value="1"></input> <nobr>Search: <select name="omenu"> <option value="unspecified" selected>All Names</option> <option value="living">Living people</option> <option value="dead">Dead people</option> <option value="bands">Band Names</option> <option value="books">Book Titles</option> <option value="movies">Movie Titles</option> <option value="fulltext">Full Text</option> </select> for <input name="query" value="" size=24 maxlength=96> <input type=submit value="Search"> </font></b></nobr></form></td> </tr> </table> <!-- COPYRIGHT (C) 2008 SOYLENT COMMUNICATIONS --> <!-- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED --> <!-- NO PART OF THIS WEBSITE MAY BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION --> <!-- OF SOYLENT COMMUNICATIONS (ON THE WEB, IN PRINT, OR OTHERWISE) --> <!-- --> <!-- SOYLENT COMMUNICATIONS --> <!-- PO BOX 4436, MOUNTAIN VIEW CA 94040 USA --> </td></tr><tr><td bgcolor=red height=2></td></tr><map name=fool><area coords="102,0,240,14" href="/people/905/000099608/bibliography/" alt="bibliography"></map><tr bgcolor=F0F0F0><td bgcolor=F0F0F0 style="padding: 0px 15px 15px 15px;"><img src="/red-profile-2.gif" align="right" height=15 width=240 border=0 usemap=#fool><br clear="all"><table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width=100%><tr><td bgcolor=F0F0F0><font size=+3 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Burton Richter</b></font><p><img src="burton-richter-1-sized.jpg" height=285 width=229 align=right hspace=10 vspace=10 alt="Burton Richter"><b>Born:</b> <a href="/lists/599/000106281/" class=proflink>22-Mar</a>-<a href="/lists/930/000105615/" class=proflink>1931</a><br><b>Birthplace:</b> <a href="/geo/436/000069229/" class=proflink>Brooklyn, NY</a><br><b>Died:</b> <a href="/lists/086/000106765/" class=proflink>18-Jul</a>-<a href="/lists/728/000403516/" class=proflink>2018</a><br><b>Location of death:</b> <a href="/geo/727/000069520/" class=proflink>Stanford, CA</a><br><b>Cause of death:</b> Heart Failure<br><p><b>Gender:</b> Male<br><b>Race or Ethnicity:</b> White<br><b>Sexual orientation:</b> Straight<br><b>Occupation:</b> <a href="/lists/629/000096341/" class=proflink>Physicist</a><br><b>Party Affiliation:</b> Democratic<p><b>Nationality:</b> United States<br><b>Executive summary:</b> Co-Discoverer of J/psi meson<p>American physicist Burton Richter discovered a previously-unknown subatomic particle, the psi-particle (now called the J/psi meson) in 1974, announced in a paper with 34 co-authors from his team at Stanford. He was a driving force in the design, struggle for funding, and construction of the Stanford Positron-Electron Accelerating Ring (SPEAR), an advanced particle collider which led to his group's work. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1976, sharing the honor with <a href="/people/908/000099611/">Samuel C. C. Ting</a>, who made the same discovery using a different methodology in concurrent but independent research.<p><b>Father:</b> Abraham Richter (textile worker)<br><b>Mother:</b> Fanny Pollack Richter<br><b>Wife:</b> Laurose Becker (m. 1960, until his death, one daughter, one son)<br><b>Daughter:</b> Elizabeth (b. 1961)<br><b>Son:</b> Matthew (b. 1963)<br><p> High School: <a href="/edu/614/000120254/">Mercersburg Academy, Mercersburg, MD (attended)</a><br> High School: <a href="/edu/976/000173457/">Far Rockaway High School, Queens, NY (1948)</a><br> University: <a href="/edu/487/000068283/">BS Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1952)</a><br> University: <a href="/edu/487/000068283/">PhD Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1956)</a><br> Scholar: <a href="/edu/084/000132685/">Nuclear Physics, Brookhaven National Laboratory (1956)</a><br> Scholar: <a href="/edu/468/000068264/">High-Energy Physics Laboratory, Stanford University (1956-67)</a><br> Professor: <a href="/edu/468/000068264/">Physics, Stanford University (1967-84)</a><br> Professor: <a href="/edu/468/000068264/">Paul Pigott Professor in the Physical Sciences, Stanford University (1984-)</a><br> Administrator: <a href="/edu/468/000068264/">Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford University (1984-99)</a><br><p> <a href="/honors/203/000165705/">E. O. Lawrence Award</a> 1976<br> <a href="/honors/201/000067997/">Nobel Prize for Physics</a> 1976 (with <a href="/people/908/000099611/">Samuel C. C. Ting</a>)<br> Member of the Board of <u>Litel Instruments</u> <br> Member of the Board of <a href="/company/837/000124465/">Varian</a> <br> <a href="/company/018/000046877/">General Motors</a> Scientific Advisory Committee<br> <a href="/org/811/000055646/">American Academy of Arts and Sciences</a> 1989<br> <a href="/org/766/000051613/">American Association for the Advancement of Science</a> <br> <a href="/org/496/000071283/">American Physical Society</a> President, 1994<br> <a href="/org/105/000172586/">Bill Bradley for President</a> <br> <a href="/org/197/000099897/">CERN</a> Fellow, 1975-76<br> <a href="/org/918/000055753/">Democratic National Committee</a> <br> <u>European Physical Society</u> <br> <a href="/org/290/000161804/">Federation of American Scientists</a> Board of Sponsors<br> <a href="/org/945/000162459/">JASON</a> <br> <a href="/org/674/000051521/">MoveOn.org</a> <br> <a href="/org/692/000054530/">National Academy of Sciences</a> 1977<br> <a href="/org/592/000071379/">National Science Foundation</a> <br> <a href="/org/180/000119820/">Scientists and Engineers for America</a> Board of Directors<br> <a href="/gov/789/000055624/">US Atomic Energy Commission</a> Funding<br> <a href="/lists/481/000045346/">Jewish Ancestry</a> <br> <p> <b>Author of books:</b><br> <i>Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Climate Change and Energy in the 21st Century</i> (<tt>2010</tt>)<br><p> <br> <p> <table> <tr> <td align=right valign=middle style="padding-right: 5px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 22px; font-style: italic; color: #ff3333;">New!</span><br> <a href="http://mapper.nndb.com/" class="fotmlink" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; color: #dd0000;">NNDB MAPPER</a></td> <td valign=middle align=right style="border-left: 1px solid #bbb; padding-left: 5px;">Create a map starting with</td> <td valign=middle align=right><a href="http://mapper.nndb.com/start/?id=99608"><img src="/man.gif" border=0 style="padding: 2px;"></a></td> <td align=left valign=middle> <a href="http://mapper.nndb.com/start/?id=99608">Burton Richter</a></td> </tr> </table> <font face="Trebuchet MS, arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Requires Flash 7+ and Javascript.</font> <br><br><p> <font size=-1>Do you know something we don't?</font><br> <font size=-1><a href="http://commentary.nndb.com/submit/feedback/?id=99608" rel="nofollow">Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile</a></font><br> <p> <br><br><p><font size=-1>Copyright ©2019 Soylent Communications</font><p> </td></tr></table> </td></tr> </table> </td> <td width=180 align="center" valign="top" style="padding: 0px 0px 8px 25px;"></td></tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>