Sidney David Drell (September 13, 1926 – December 21, 2016) was an American theoretical physicist and

arms control Arms control is a term for international restrictions upon the development, production, stockpiling, proliferation and usage of small arms, conventional weapons, and weapons of mass destruction. Arms control is typically exercised through the u ...

expert. At the time of his death, he was professor emeritus at the

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a United States Department of Energy National Laboratory operated by Stanford University under the programmatic direction of the U.S. Departme ...

(SLAC) and senior fellow at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

's Hoover Institution. Drell was a noted contributor in the fields of quantum electrodynamics and high-energy particle physics. The

Drell–Yan process The Drell–Yan process occurs in high energy hadron–hadron scattering. It takes place when a quark of one hadron and an antiquark of another hadron annihilate, creating a virtual photon or Z boson which then decays into a pair of oppositely-c ...

is partially named for him.

Biography

Born in

Atlantic City, New Jersey Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020, the city had a population of 38,497.

, Drell graduated from Atlantic City High School. He earned his undergraduate degree in physics from Princeton University in 1946, having been admitted at the age of 16. Grimes, William
"Sidney Drell, Who Advised Presidents on Nuclear Weapons, Dies at 90"
'' The New York Times'', December 22, 2016. Accessed December 22, 2016. "Sidney David Drell was born on Sept. 13, 1926, in Atlantic City, to Jewish immigrants from the Russian empire." He was awarded a masters in physics in 1947 and received his PhD from the University of Illinois in 1949. He co-authored the textbooks ''Relativistic Quantum Mechanics'' and ''Relativistic Quantum Fields'' with James Bjorken. Drell was active as a scientific advisor to the

U.S. government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

, and was a founding member of the

JASON Defense Advisory Group JASON is an independent group of elite scientists which advises the United States government on matters of science and technology, mostly of a sensitive nature. The group was created in the aftermath of the Sputnik launch as a way to reinvigorate ...

. He was also on the board of directors of Los Alamos National Security, the company that operates the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He was an expert in the field of nuclear arms control and cofounder of the Center for International Security and Arms Control, now the Center for International Security and Cooperation. He was a Senior Fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution and an accomplished violinist. He was a trustee Emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He was the father of Persis Drell, former head of SLAC national accelerator lab, former dean of the Stanford University School of Engineering, and now current provost of Stanford University; Joanna Drell, Professor of History and chair of the Department of History at the University of Richmond; and Daniel Drell, a program officer at the U.S. Department of Energy. Sidney Drell died in December 2016 at his home in Palo Alto, California at the age of 90.

Awards and honors

* Member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

(1969) * Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1971) * Member of the American Philosophical Society (1987) * The 11th Annual Heinz Award in Public PolicyThe Heinz Awards, Sidney Drell profile
/ref> * Enrico Fermi Award, 2000 * National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, 2001 * National Medal of Science, 2011 (presented by President Barack Obama on February 1, 2013)

References

External links

Oral history interview transcript with Sidney Drell on 1 July 1986, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
* SLAC

* Hoover Institution
Sidney D. Drell papers
at th
Hoover Institution Archives
*The Academi
Tree
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drell, Sidney 1926 births 2016 deaths Atlantic City High School alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Trustees of the Institute for Advanced Study American physicists Enrico Fermi Award recipients MacArthur Fellows People from Atlantic City, New Jersey Princeton University alumni Stanford University Department of Physics faculty Particle physicists Los Alamos National Laboratory personnel Members of JASON (advisory group) Recipients of the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal Members of the American Philosophical Society Presidents of the American Physical Society