Roy F. Schwitters, 1944 - 2023

SLAC Associate Professor, SSC Director

Roy Schwitters, 1986
(SLAC - Breidenbach) Roy Schwitters at work on MARK II Detector, 1986

Professional and Biographical Information

  • Bachelor of Science, Physics, MIT, 1966
  • Ph.D., Physics, MIT, 1971
  • Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC)
    • Research Associate, 1971-1974
    • Assistant Professor, 1974-1977
    • Associate Professor, 1977-1979
  • Professor of Physics, Harvard University, 1979-1990
  • Director, Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) Laboratory, 1989-1993
  • S. W. Richardson Regents Professor of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin, 1990- 2020; 
    Chair, Department of Physics, 2001-2005
  • JASON Defense Advisory Group member 1996-2023 (Chair, 2005-2011)
  • Scientist at Work: Roy F. Schwitters; Building a Behemoth Against Great Odds. By Malcolm W. Browne New York Times, March 23, 1993.
  • Remembering High-Energy Physicist Roy Schwitters. University of Texas at Austin, and Austin American Statesman, both January 18, 2023
  • In Memoriam: Roy Schwitters, Aurore Savoy-Navarro, Fermilab, January 20, 2023.
  • Obituary by Michael Riordan, The Orcasonian, January 22, 2023.
  • In Memory of Roy Schwitters. SLAC Today, March 1, 2023
  • Roy Frederick Schwitters Obituary. By Michael Riordan, Physics Today, April 2023

Awards and Honors

  • Fellow, American Physical Society
  • Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
  • Humboldt Research Prize, A. von Humboldt Foundation, 1998
  • Panofsky Prize, American Physical Society, 1996
  • Honorary Doctor of Laws, Southwest Adventist College, 1993
  • Member, Texas Philosophical Society, 1992
  • Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1987
  • Alan T. Waterman Award, National Science Foundation, 1980
  • Sigma Xi Award, Stanford University, 1975

Publications

For a list of Roy F. Schwitters publications, please see the entries in inSpire HEP and in Google Scholar.

Archival Materials

Roy Schwitters papers should be sought from the Briscoe Center, University of Texas, Austin 
or from the archives of the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC), held in the FermiLab Archives.

Note: Some links on this page open pdf files, which require the free Acrobat Reader.

Roy Schwitters, 1974
(LBNL) Roy Schwitters with MARK I detector, 1974