Burton Richter
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Burton Richter
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1976
Born: 22 March 1931, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Died: 18 July 2018, Stanford, CA, USA
Affiliation at the time of the award: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford, CA, USA
Prize motivation: "for their pioneering work in the discovery of a heavy elementary particle of a new kind."
Prize share: 1/2
Work
By about 1970, a large number of elementary particles had been identified. Most of these comprised two or three quarks. Using high-energy particle collisions and independently of one another, in 1974 both Burton Richter and Samuel Ting, independently of each other, discovered a new heavy particle, known as J/psi, proving experimentally the existence of a fourth quark, later named "charm".
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Nobel Prizes 2018
Their work and discoveries range from cancer therapy and laser physics to developing proteins that can solve humankind’s chemical problems. The work of the 2018 Nobel Laureates also included combating war crimes, as well as integrating innovation and climate with economic growth. Find out more.
