Guy von Dardel 1919-2009

Guy von Dardel, a well-known figure at CERN and in the international particle physics community, passed away on 28 August.



Guy von Dardel came to CERN when it was founded in 1954 and was a full-time staff member until 1964, performing several experiments and working on technical developments. These included the first measurement of the neutral pion’s life-time. Called to Lund University in 1964, he became professor there in 1965 and director of the 1.2 GeV electron accelerator.

In the late 1960s, he performed an experiment at CERN’s PS that measured the decays of the Λ. Then, in the early 1970s, he involved the Lund group in a series of experiments at the Intersecting Storage Rings (ISR), where he measured the production of various types of particles. In particular, he participated in a series of experiments that observed the production of a high abundance of particles with large transverse momenta. This required an explanation in terms of a substructure in the colliding protons.

Guy von Dardel was chairman of the European Committee for Future Accelerators (ECFA) from 1976 to 1977. During this period he was instrumental in starting CERN’s preparations for the Large Electron Positron (LEP) collider. He was later involved in the L3 experiment at LEP.

In the mid-1980s, together with James Cronin, he conducted a new version of the experiment that measured the lifetime of the neutral pion. The result was consistent with the first measurement, but with an order of magnitude better precision.

As a scientist, Guy von Dardel was Known for his large flow of ideas: ideas for physics experiments and ideas about instrumentation. He was also strong in providing rapid and rough estimates, an important ability when discussing new ideas. He was an inspiration for all those he worked with.

His half-brother Raoul Wallenberg disappeared at the end of the Second World War after having saved tens of thousands of Jewish lives. Guy von Dardel made countless journeys to the Soviet Union and Russia in an attempt to discover his brother’s fate, and compiled an extensive archive on the subject.

We share our sorrow with his family and convey our deepest condolences to his wife Matilda and the rest of his family.

His colleagues and friends