Ted Wilson passes on the torch

As part of the Laboratory's outreach programme, the CERN Accelerator School (CAS) brings together students and experienced physicists from all over the world with the aim of promoting the understanding of accelerator physics. As head of the School for 11 years, Ted Wilson became a CERN ambassador to the outside community. He retired in March, handing over the reigns of the CAS to Daniel Brandt.

As a boy, Ted Wilson could have embarked on a career in pop music rather than physics, rubbing shoulders at secondary school in Liverpool with two of the future Beatles. But prefering classical music and answering the call of science, he took the more serious of the two paths, studying physics first at Oxford University then at the Rutherford Laboratory. After a year at CERN and four years at the Rutherford Lab, he came to CERN in 1967. Here he worked on the SPS and collaborated closely with John Adams, taking part in the design and commissioning of the accelerator. He was also sent to Fermilab in the United States to help out in the operation of the Main Ring, which was experiencing some difficulties. In 1980, he joined the PS and worked on the antiproton accumulator. A few years later, he was asked to take part in the development of future accelerators for the PS Division. In 1991, he became a member of the LHC Committee and was entrusted with the task of writing a report on the design of the future accelerator.
Drawing on this experience, he took over as head of the CERN Accelerator School in 1992, in which capacity he was responsible for organising around 25 schools, not including special schools in India and China. In particular, he took part in the development of joint schools with Japan. Students remember the cowbells he rang at the start of lectures. A brilliant speaker, he also gave lectures in the framework of the Academic Training Programme. As an honorary member of the personnel, he will continue to pursue his interests in the accelerator field.