Gordon Munday – 1922-2008

Gordon Lennox Munday, one of the leading figures in CERN accelerator physics, passed away on 28 July.

Gordon Munday first came to CERN in 1955 where he joined the team led by John Adams responsible for building CERN’s Proton Synchrotron, the PS. He was put in charge of the construction of the vacuum system for the future accelerator. Shortly after the start-up of the PS, he created a group with the task of assisting user physicists to prepare and carry out their experiments. His team managed the experimental areas, and designed, set up and operated the beams in which the physicists installed their experiments at the facility. This activity was crucial since it entailed implementing the experimental programme decided by the Management as well as possible while taking account of the technical constraints specified by the accelerator engineers and meeting the physicists’ sometimes contradictory requirements.

The third phase of his career started in 1973 when he took over from Peter Standley at the helm of the PS Machine (MPS) Division. Under his leadership, the PS, which had initially been designed to produce protons and secondary particles and accelerate them towards designated experimental areas, was transformed into a multi-purpose machine. The accelerator was adapted to provide beams for other machines and to meet previously unanticipated requirements. Thus the PS became the injector for CERN’s next large machine, the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), and was adapted to accelerate light ions and heavy ions and to produce the unstable nuclei studied in ISOLDE. Gordon Munday also had responsibility for the construction of the antiproton accumulator (AA). Ultimately, it was this machine that would make possible the ppbar programme, which would lead to the Nobel Prize winning discovery of the W and Z bosons. It was during his term of office that the idea was conceived of using the PS to produce and pre-accelerate electrons and positrons for the next major machine, LEP. Finally, he commissioned a comprehensive in-depth analysis of all aspects of PS operation, probably the least well-known of his achievements. He launched a programme of development and consolidation that enabled the PS, which had been designed and built in the 1950s, to achieve unparalleled reliability.

Throughout his career Gordon Munday was greatly respected and held in affection by his colleagues, not least for his unfailing human qualities and for his ability to listen. He made a contribution to developing and maintaining a team spirit amongst the members of his division. In 1981 he moved to the office of the Director-General with responsibility for various tasks related to the general policy of the Organization and in particular the analysis of future manpower needs in the context of restrictions whose impact was already beginning to be felt.

After his retirement in 1987, he retained close ties with CERN and its personnel and accepted the chairmanship of the CERN Pensioners Association (GAC). He became the GAC’s spokesman in its dealings with the Organization’s governing bodies and managed to ensure that pensioners’ concerns were taken into account in increasingly difficult circumstances.

Gordon Munday will be remembered and admired both as a scientist and a manager. We would like to convey our deepest condolences to his family.

His friends and former colleagues at the PS