Richard Lundy was a key member of the team that made the world’s first large superconducting particle accelerator a reality. Lundy and three other physicists — Helen Edwards, Richie Orr and Alvin Tollestrup – overcame numerous challenges to successfully design the Tevatron particle accelerator at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago.
Lundy, who earned a doctorate in physics from the University of Chicago in 1961, joined the Fermilab staff in 1971 and went on to hold a number of leadership posts there, including associate director of technology. He was appointed business manager in 1977.
Lundy headed the magnet section when the Tevatron was being designed and built and was instrumental in the production of the accelerator’s superconducting magnets. Lundy and the team’s innovative design for the ground-breaking Tevatron, at the time the world’s highest-energy proton-antiproton collider, would late prove pivotal in the design of the Superconducting Super Collider particle accelerator.
The Tevatron spurred numerous discoveries, including the existence of the top quark, before it was shut down in 2011.
By Robert Warren
