Awards for Lyn Evans and Philippe Lebrun

Lyn Evans has received the American Physical Society’s Robert R. Wilson Prize, while Philippe Lebrun has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the Wrocław University of Technology in Poland.

Lyn Evans in front of an LHC dipole magnet.

Philippe Lebrun (centre) with the Dean of the Faculty of mechanical and power engineering of the Wrocław University during the ceremony (courtesy of Laurent Tavian).

Numerous honours are going to the LHC and those behind it even before this exceptional machine begins operation. The LHC Project Leader, Lyn Evans, has recently been awarded the "Robert R. Wilson Prize for Achievement in the Physics of Particle Accelerators" by the American Physical Society (APS). According to the citation, the prize was awarded "for a sustained career of technical innovation and leadership in the SPS proton-antiproton collider, culminating in the construction and commissioning of the LHC".

Lyn Evans joined CERN in 1970 as a Fellow in what was then known as the PS Division. He participated in the development of the experimental 3 MeV linear collider, which was the prototype for the PS linear injector. In 1971 he joined the 300 GeV project team responsible for building the accelerator that was to become the 450 GeV Super Proton Synchrotron. In the framework of this project he developed a new beam separation system using unconventional septum magnets of his own design. After the SPS was commissioned in 1976, he made many contributions to the work on converting the accelerator into a proton-antiproton collider, the project which led to the discovery of the W and Z bosons in 1983.


Following a spell in the United States, where he was involved in the commissioning of Fermilab’s Tevatron collider, Lyn Evans was appointed leader of the SPS control system project in 1985, then head of the project to convert the SPS into an electron-positron injector for the LEP collider in 1987.

Becoming deputy head of the SPS Division in 1988 and subsequently head of the SL Division (an amalgamation of the SPS and LEP Divisions) in 1990, he was appointed Associate Director for Future Accelerators in 1994 with responsibility for the design of the Large Hadron Collider. He has been LHC Project Leader since 1995, in which capacity, together with his team, he has worked with dogged determination to bring the world’s most ambitious ever accelerator to life. The gradual commissioning of the machine now under way represents the culmination of almost 15 years of effort. The APS Robert R. Wilson Prize was first awarded in 1987, and two members of CERN have already been recipients: Kjell Johnsen in 1990 and Albert Hofmann in 1996.

One the cornerstones of the LHC is its cryogenics system, which will keep the machine at a temperature close to absolute zero so that the magnets can operate in a superconducting state. Philippe Lebrun, Head of the Accelerator Technology Department, has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the Wrocław University of Technology for his fundamental role in the design and construction of this sophisticated system.

After graduating as an engineer from the Ecole des Mines in Paris, Philippe Lebrun joined CERN in 1974 as a member of the Magnets and Beam Optics group of the ISR Division. Since then he has taken part in all of CERN’s accelerator projects, from the ISR to LEP and the LHC. At the very beginning of the LHC project in 1990 he took on the responsibility for the study and design of the cryogenics system, becoming one of the leading figures behind the most ambitious system of this kind ever developed. In 1999, when the main industrial contracts for the machine were being put out to tender, he became head of the LHC Division. Subsequently appointed leader of the Accelerator Technology Division in 2003, which became a Department in 2004, he also heads the "Cryogenics" section of the International Institute of Refrigeration, an international governmental organisation with 61 Member States.

He was awarded his honorary doctorate by Maciej Chorowski, Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical and Power Engineering of the Wrocław University of Technology and member of the Polish delegation to the CERN Finance Committee, during a ceremony presided over by Tadeusz Luty, Rector of the University.