Gregory A. Loew (1930– )
American physicist
Fellow of the American Physical Society
Recipient of the French Medal of the Ordre du Merite
Gregory Loew was born in Vienna, Austria in 1930, and raised in Paris, France and Buenos
Aires, Argentina. He received his Licence-ès- Sciences degree from the Faculté des Sciences at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1952, his M.S. in Electrical Engineering at Caltech in 1954, and his PhD in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University in 1958. His entire career was spent at Stanford, starting in 1958 with Project M (for “Monster”), later in 1962 to be renamed
SLAC. He has held a variety of positions at the Laboratory, beginning in 1964 as head of the
Accelerator Physics Department, then Deputy Director of the Technical Division (1980–
2001), and finally, Deputy Director of SLAC (2001–2005). He was and still is a Professor at
SLAC (which has an academic affiliation with Stanford University), having started as an
Adjunct Professor in 1974, and moved up to Professor by 1982. As an avocation, he created and then taught a course at Stanford on the “Causes of War” for over ten years. From SLAC’s inception, Loew was involved in the design and construction of the linear accelerator, working on accelerator structures, radiofrequency systems, instrumentation and beam physics. He participated at various levels in the development of all the other current and future machines of the laboratory, SPEAR, PEP, SLC, NLC, and LCLS, and took a special interest in the behavior of accelerator structures at very high electric gradient. He was also instrumental in the creation of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility, CEBAF, now the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Laboratory, having proposed the initially accepted design (an Electron Pulse Stretcher Ring), which was later superseded by the current superconducting machine. His other activities at SLAC include the procurement and management of electrical power for the lab and the administration of most of the international collaborations. When the Superconducting Super Collider, SSC, was terminated, he participated in the gigantic (but sad) disposition of leftover equipment (1993–1995).
Loew has played an important role in advancing the status of large electron-positron linear colliders. He chaired both International Linear Collider Technical Review Committees, the first in 1994–1995, the second in 2001–2003. This work in 2004 eventually culminated in the selection of a preferred technology for the International Linear Collider.
Loew has been active on human rights matters for many years and was chair of the
American Physical Society Committee on the International Freedom of Scientists in 1996.
His interests, other than physics, include international affairs and politics. He loves music and has a special fondness for opera.