|
|
|
A story from Alan Lazarusn I was Pief's graduate student from about 1954 to 1959. I met him through being a student and then grader for his E&M class. My thesis topic was on photoproduction of pi mesons at small angles to an incoming beam of photons.. The measurements required many hours of data taking at HEPL. Pief would frequently come during all-night runs to cheer me on and to peer into the oscilloscope that would show qualities of the measured events at the frustrating rate of one per several minutes. But he stayed at night as long as he could, and I remember well the occasions when he was silent for long intervals during which he clearly had fallen asleep. He would start awake and then ask a probing question! As a supervisor of other students in the future, I appreciated what his support meant and required from his busy day. Another vignette: when my thesis work was done, and I was writing it up, I decided to use the relatively new computer facility next door to the HEPL to check the importance of the photoelectric term we were searching for at small angles to the incoming photon beam. It turned out that through interference with another term, its effect had been visible for several years in the past. What a shock! To Pief too. When I showed him my results, his response was "I don't believe it!" He was a trusted friend and wonderful mentor. The combination of Pief and Adele made my graduate student life a joy. - Alan Lazarus |
« Back
