In Memoriam: Simon Peter Rosen
“I would urge you to adopt the
goal of keeping the United States a world
leader in the field of Elementary Particle
Physics... It is my strong belief that being
a world leader in Elementary Particle Physics
is an important element in our national scientific
strength, and therefore in our overall strength
as a nation. Elementary Particle Physics produces
new knowledge, inspires the next generation,
and produces spin-offs that change the way
we do all of science and live our daily lives…
I am firmly convinced that being a world leader
in Elementary Particle Physics is an integral
part of our national strength, scientifically,
economically, and security-wise, and I hope
that you will agree with me.”
From the statement by Dr. S. Peter Rosen
on “Elementary Particle Physics in the
21st Century,” before the National Research
Council’s “EPP 2010” Committee,
in Washington, DC on November 30, 2004
Simon Peter Rosen, a leading theorist in elementary
particle physics, an international authority
on neutrino physics, and a director of major
high energy and nuclear physics programs at
the Department of Energy (DOE), died on October
13, 2006 at his home in Rockville, Maryland,
after a courageous three-year battle with pancreatic
cancer. He was 73.
At the time of his death, Dr. Rosen was Senior
Science Advisor to the Director of the Department
of Energy’s Office of Science, a position
he had held since 2003. He was Associate Director
of High Energy and Nuclear Physics (HENP) in
the DOE Office of Science from 1997 to 2003.
“Peter Rosen was a colleague and friend
we shall all miss so very much," said Raymond
L. Orbach, the U.S. Department of Energy's Under
Secretary for Science. "He was an inspiration
to all of us, for his dedication to science,
his commitment to students and learning, his
courage in the face of a terrible cancer, and
most of all his humanity and thoughtfulness.
His love of science infected all who were privileged
to work with him. A deep religious belief combined
with a remarkable intellect moved his science
onto a higher plain of meaning and significance.
My grief is shared by all who knew and loved
him. I offer my deepest condolences to his dear
family.”
The DOE Office of Science is the single largest
supporter of basic research in the physical
sciences in the United States, providing more
than 40 percent of total funding for this vital
area of national importance, and it is the principal
federal funding agency of the nation’s
research programs in high-energy physics and
nuclear physics. As Associate Director of HENP,
Dr. Rosen oversaw an annual budget of $1 billion.
During Dr. Rosen’s tenure as Associate
Director of the Office of High Energy and Nuclear
Physics, high energy physicists and astrophysicists
at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory made
one of the most important and amazing scientific
advances of the past century: the discovery
of dark energy, which accounts for 70 percent
of the energy in the universe. Experiments based
in Canada and Japan, with strong support by
HENP, made another very important discovery:
that neutrinos have mass and oscillate among
three different forms. Two new research facilities,
the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at
Brookhaven National Laboratory and the B Factory
at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC),
began operations and made fundamental discoveries
related to the first moments of the universe.
A major upgrade was completed for the Fermilab
Tevatron, the highest energy particle accelerator
now operating. With the help of the High Energy
Physics Advisory Panel, Dr. Rosen established
a 20-year roadmap for high energy physics and
a new mechanism to update the roadmap and set
priorities for mid-size and mid-term projects.
"Peter Rosen provided important and visionary
leadership as Associate Director of the DOE
Office of High Energy and Nuclear Physics,"
said Dr. James F. Decker, Principal Deputy Director
of the DOE Office of Science. "Peter helped
advance the field's pursuit – and the
public's understanding – of the beauty
of the origin, fundamental structure and forces
of matter, and he was a terrific colleague to
fellow physicists at research universities,
national laboratories, professional societies,
and science agencies here in the United States
and around the world. And he was not only professionally
accomplished; Peter was a wonderful human being,
always a first-class gentleman.”
“I worked with Peter during my last two
years as Director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator
Center,” said Burton Richter, who won
the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1976 and was Director
of SLAC from 1984 to 1999. “He was always
driven by the desire to do the best possible
physics with the funds available. A little known
contribution of his is beginning the negotiations
with NASA on the first DOE-NASA joint program,
the GLAST experiment, which started what will
continue to be an illustrious joint program.”
Dr. Rosen completed negotiations for U.S. participation
in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN
laboratory, a major new European research facility
that will begin operations in 2007 and be a
key resource for the U.S. high energy physics
program.
"In addition to his distinguished work
as a theorist, Peter was instrumental in setting
up the U.S. contribution to the LHC project
at CERN,” said former CERN Director General
Luciano Maiani. “He displayed a clear
vision of the importance of international collaboration
in modern science. Although he was a committed
defender of the interests of his country, CERN
remembers him as a loyal partner who never lost
sight of the long term goals of science."
Dr. Rosen was a gifted teacher, graceful writer,
and effective advocate for the field of particle
physics, which he sought to make more accessible
to the general public. Even while undergoing
intensive cancer treatments, he continued his
energetic efforts on behalf of physics for as
long as possible.
In November 2004, he delivered
testimony before the National Research Council’s
“EPP 2010” Committee, which
was charged with charting a course forward for
Elementary Particle Physics in this country.
In September 2006, Dr. Rosen published an eloquent
tribute
to Nobel Laureate Ray Davis Jr., “discoverer
and grand pioneer of the solar neutrino problem,”
in the CERN Courier.
Dr. Rosen led the DOE Office of Science’s
observance of the 2005
World Year of Physics, during which he wrote
articles about the role of physics in science
and engineering, delivered a lecture entitled
“Einstein
Made Easy: Special Relativity at the Heart of
Office of Science Programs,” and recommended
DOE co-sponsorship of “Einstein’s
Big Idea,” the PBS NOVA program in honor
of the centenary of Einstein’s famous
equation, E=mc².
Dr. Rosen also was a proponent of the DOE’s
co-sponsorship of “The Elegant Universe,”
the 2003 PBS NOVA program on string theory based
on the book by Brian Greene and narrated by
the author.
“Peter Rosen intuitively understood the
value of humanizing science for the general
public, of showing scientists as living and
lively individuals with a special passion to
understand the world around them,” said
Paula Apsell, founder and Senior Executive Producer
of NOVA. “Perhaps that's because Peter
was one of those people – an accomplished
scientist and a wonderful person. In him, science
and humanity mixed in a most appealing and important
way.”
“Peter Rosen was a wonderful man with
a gentle soul,” said Brian Greene, Professor
of Physics and Mathematics at Columbia University.
“A highly accomplished physicist, he understood
well the value of making cutting-edge scientific
ideas available to the general public. His support
of both science and science communication was
crucial and unwavering, and because of this
his impact has been broad and far reaching.
He will be dearly missed.”
During the last year of his life, Dr. Rosen
returned to his favorite field of physics and
served as Program Director for the Theoretical
Elementary Particle Physics Program at the National
Science Foundation (NSF).. There, he once again
stewarded the field by making grants to Principal
Investigators with the most compelling proposals
for basic research, and he mentored those at
the beginning of their careers in the process
of obtaining their first grant. Dr. Rosen also
gave his last two invited talks on neutrino
physics at an international conference.
"The NSF Division of Physics was very
fortunate to have a person of Peter's rare talent
and personal quality spend a year with us,”
said Joe Dehmer, Director of NSF’s Division
of Physics. “He had a true passion for
physics and a genuine affection for physicists."
Dr. Rosen also was a man of great faith, which
sometimes was manifested in his work. Here is
how he opened an article on “The
March toward Higher Energies” that
he wrote for Los Alamos Science in 1984:
In the Book of Genesis, we are told that …
unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael;
and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael
begat Lamech. And Lamech… And so it is
with particle accelerators! Each generation
of these machines answers a set of important
questions, makes some fundamental discoveries,
and gives rise to new questions that can be
answered only by a new generation of accelerators,
usually of higher energy than the previous one.
Before joining the DOE Office of Science, Dr.
Rosen was Dean of Science and a Professor of
Physics at the University Texas at Arlington
from 1990 to 1996, a Visiting Scientist at the
Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory from
1990 to 1993, and a Visiting Professor at the
University of Sussex, England, from 1989 to
1992.
Dr. Rosen was Associate Division Leader for
Nuclear and Particle Physics of the Theoretical
Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory from
1983 to 1990, a Program Associate for Theoretical
Physics at the National Science Foundation from
1981 to 1983, Senior Theoretical Physicist at
the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration
Division of High Energy and Nuclear Physics
from 1975-1977.
Boris Kayser was Program Director for Theoretical
Physics at NSF from 1975 to 2001, is now a member
of the theory group at Fermilab, and collaborated
with Peter Rosen on their mutual passion, neutrino
physics. “Peter was a courtly, scholarly
scientist,” said Dr. Kayser, who is vice-chair-elect
of the Division of Particles and Fields of the
American Physical Society. “I had the
good luck to know him as a researcher, an administrator,
and a friend. He taught me a lot about nuclear
double beta decay, whose physics he and Henry
Primakoff pioneered. As an administrator, he
was a steadfast, generous supporter of science
and the careers of scientists. As a friend,
he was quietly insightful, and gently considerate
and supportive. He will be greatly missed.”
Dr. Rosen began his professional career as
a Research Associate at Washington University
in St. Louis, Missouri from 1957 to 1959. He
then became a Scientist at Midwestern Universities
Research Association in Madison, Wisconsin from
1959 to 1961, and was a NATO Fellow at Clarendon
Laboratory in Oxford, England from 1961 to 1962.
Dr. Rosen then joined Purdue University, where
he was Assistant Professor from 1962 to 1963,
Associate Professor from 1963 to 1966, and Professor
from 1966 to 1984.
Dr. Rosen received his B.A. in mathematics
in 1954 and both an M.A. and D.Phil. in theoretical
physics from Merton College, Oxford University,
in 1957.
Peter Rosen was born in London, England, in
1933 and became a naturalized American citizen
in 1972.
Dr. Rosen was a Fellow of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science and of the American
Physical Society (APS).
"In addition to his distinguished career
as a theoretical physicist,"
said John Hopfield, President of the APS, "Peter
Rosen was a dedicated public servant who, most
notably, held important administrative posts
at both the Department of Energy and the National
Science Foundation. His contributions to physics
and science policy will long be remembered.
Peter waged a courageous battle against a life-threatening
illness, never flagging in his sense of duty
and service. We will miss him greatly. On behalf
of the American Physical Society, I extend my
sincere condolences to his wife and family."
In 2000, Dr. Rosen was named Professor Emeritus
of the University of Texas at Arlington for
his “years of excellence in teaching,
internationally acclaimed research, and administrative
service to the University.”
In 2004, Purdue University awarded Dr. Rosen
an honorary degree for “fundamental contributions
to our knowledge of the weak interactions in
the areas of neutrinos and double beta decay,
and for his vision and leadership in his oversight
of the U.S. Elementary Particle Physics Program.”
Dr. Rosen published 92 scientific papers and
11 review articles, edited two books, and gave
32 invited talks at major conferences.
Peter Rosen is survived by his wife of 19 years,
Adrienne Rosen of Rockville; his son Daniel
Rosen of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; his daughter
Sarah Rosen of San Francisco, California; his
stepson Robert Hayes of Rockville; his stepdaughter
Brooke York, her husband David, and their daughter,
Megan, of Arlington, Texas.
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