"A giant among men"

In 1928, 27-year-old Ernest Lawrence left the security of Yale to become an assistant professor in the University of California, Berkeley's fledgling physics department. Friends predicted he would "quickly go to seed in the unscientific climate of the west," Luis Alvarez wrote in a biography of Lawrence. 

They couldn't have been more wrong. Just 11 years later, Lawrence received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention of the cyclotron, the world's first particle accelerator.

Lawrence grew up in Canton, S.D., where his father served as superintendent of schools. After graduating from high school, Lawrence attended college at St. Olaf's in Northfield, Minn. but returned to his native state one year later to finish his bachelor's degree. He went on to receive his Ph.D. from Yale in 1925. 

From early childhood, Lawrence demonstrated scientific ingenuity and daring, wrote Alvarez, a Nobel Laureate. Lawrence and his childhood friend Merle Tuve built and flew gliders and constructed a very early short-wave radio transmitting station. They "carried the friendly rivalry of their boyhood days into the formative stages of American nuclear physics, and all nuclear physicists have benefitted greatly from the results," Alvarez wrote.

This year marks 75 years since Lawrence accepted the Nobel. His work in the field of nuclear science runs deep: all the way back to South Dakota and Sanford Underground Research Facility (Sanford Lab). Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) are named for him and both are connected to the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment. "The particle accelerator principles developed by Lawrence will be reflected in LBNF and used to study neutrinos," said Jaret Heise, Director of Science at Sanford Lab.

Lawrence called his first cyclotron, which had a 5-inch accelerating chamber, his proton merry-go-round. Lynn Yarris, a writer for LBNL, described it as ?"a pie-shaped concoction of glass, sealing wax, and bronze. A kitchen chair and a wire-coiled clothes tree were also enlisted to make the device work." Despite it's crude appearance, Lawrence proved that accelerating particles to very high velocities was the best way to smash open atomic nuclei. 

Lawrence would go on to develop far more sophisticated cyclotrons that required more space. In 1931, Berkeley turned over its Civil Engineering Testing Lab to Lawrence and renamed it the Radiation Laboratory. It housed the 27-inch, 36-inch, and 60-inch cyclotrons. In 1946, a new facility was built for his 184-inch cyclotron.  

During World War II, Lawrence worked on the Manhattan Project, which produced the first atomic bombs. Later, Lawrence was part of an effort that sought an international agreement to suspend atomic bomb testing. 

On February 29, 1940, Ernest Lawrence accepted the Nobel for his invention in a ceremony held at UC Berkeley—the war made international travel nearly impossible. In his acceptance speech, he expressed "a profound feeling of gratitude and appreciation for this great honor, which I share with all those outside who have contributed to make our work possible and above all with my valued colleagues and co-workers both past and present."

Lawrence died on August 27, 1958, of a chronic illness. He was 57 years old. Alvarez, his friend and colleague, wrote, "For those who had the good fortune to be close to him both personally and scientifically he will always seem a giant among men. He will always be remembered as the inventor of the cyclotron, but more importantly, he should be remembered as the inventor of the modern way of doing science."