Rob Wolf 1947-2010



We deeply regret to announce the death of Mr Rob WOLF on 20.06.2010.
Mr Rob Wolf, born on 07.06.1947, worked in the TE Department and had been employed at CERN since 15.09.1973.

The Director-General has sent his family a message of condolence on behalf of the CERN staff.

Social Affairs
Human Resources Department





Rob Wolf passed away on Sunday 20 June after a long illness. Born in June 1947 in The Netherlands, he joined CERN as a fellow in September 1972 after obtaining his doctoral qualification from the University of Leiden (NL) on the degradation of superconducting materials in ionizing radiation. He was a member of the CERN personnel since 1st March 1975.

Rob immediately assumed full responsibility for the measurement and qualification of the superconducting materials for the low-beta magnet project of the ISR, and was then tasked with the manufacture of the corrector windings of these magnets. Throughout his working life he remained a reference in these areas. Later, Rob took on the responsibility for the LEP resistive sextupole magnets, including complete management of their industrial production, and for the superconducting wires of the LEP superconducting low-beta magnets. He made important contributions to the procurement of LHC superconductors mastering all theoretical aspects related to their magnetization. He then led the section responsible for the superconducting corrector magnets. Finally he took a full and active part in the magnetic modelling required to pilot the main ring magnets of LHC and had decided to retire only when this machine was productively operational. We are in his debt for the detailed physical explanation of the "decay and snap-back", a parasitic phenomenon, the precise control of which is essential to the successful acceleration of the LHC particle beams. We all remember his extraordinary talents applied to the fundamental explanation of the numerous technical problems that these accelerators presented.

Rob impressed us with his calm, his discretion and wisdom. No one can remember him ever raising his voice. His management style was based on competence and good solid common sense. Rob was often to be kindly teased out of profoundly distracted moments - prone at any time to total absorption in his work, he would accept this with goodwill and a smile.

He brought many of us to share his love and passion for the mountains and to appreciate his extended knowledge of mountain craft. Many a discussion did we share and enjoy with Rob on the protection of nature and the promotion of sustainable development, to which he applied his talents as a physicist and his devotion to simple values.

We extend our heart-felt sympathy to his wife, Heidi, and to his family.

His colleagues and friends from TE Department

by TE Department