Lederman, Leon (1921– )

German-born US physicist who, with Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1988 for the study of elementary particles using neutrinos, and the discovery of the muon neutrino.

In 1961 using a huge detector weighing 10 tonnes Lederman, Steinberger, and Schwartz caught a small number of neutrinos, the world's first neutrino beam. Using this beam they found the muon neutrino, a new type of neutrino, and investigated the weak nuclear force and the quark structure of matter.

Lederman was born in New York City and educated at Columbia University, New York, receiving his doctorate in 1951, and staying on at the university for 28 years. He was appointed professor in 1958. He served as director of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, near Chicago 1979–89. He is director emeritus of the Fermi National Accelerator Centre and was selected to be one of a US delegation of 20 to the World Conference on Science organized by UNESCO and the International Council for Science in 1999.