[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 55 (Tuesday, April 8, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E541]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                A TRIBUTE TO DR. WOLFGANG K. H. PANOFSKY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 8, 2008

  Ms. ESHOO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of particle 
physicist, presidential advisor and arms control advocate, Dr. Wolfgang 
K. H. Panofsky, who died on September 27, 2007 in his home in Los 
Altos, California. He is survived by his wife Adele; two daughters, 
Margaret and Carol; three sons, Edward, Richard and Steven; nine 
grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
  ``Pief,'' as he was more affectionately known, was born in 1919 in 
Berlin. At the age of 15, Dr. Panofsky immigrated with his family to 
the United States where he received degrees from Princeton and the 
California Institute of Technology. In 1951, he accepted a 
professorship at Stanford University and, from 1961 to 1984, served as 
the founding director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC).
  Under his leadership, SLAC became one of the most productive research 
facilities ever constructed. Its research in high-energy physics and 
subatomic particles would yield three Nobel Prizes and the discovery of 
new forms of matter.
  The wide-reaching moral and ethical repercussions of his work, 
particularly his earlier contributions to the Manhattan Project, were 
not lost on Dr. Panofsky. He carried his zest for discovery into 
impassioned advocacy, working with our Nation's highest offices and 
across borders and seas to prevent nuclear catastrophe.
  Dr. Panofsky served as an adviser on arms control in the Kennedy and 
Johnson Administrations, helping to secure the Atmospheric Test Ban 
Treaty in 1963 and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972. In 1983, 
as the Cold War marked an increasingly divided world, Dr. Panofsky 
dismissed the Reagan Administration's ``Star Wars'' weapons initiative, 
and advocated instead for collaboration between SLAC and Chinese and 
Russian scientists as a deterrent to nuclear war.
  Madam Speaker, I ask the entire House of Representatives to join me 
in honoring Dr. Wolfgang K. H. ``Pief'' Panofsky. Through his many 
contributions to particle physics and arms control policy, he has left 
a legacy of brilliance and social consciousness which will never be 
forgotten.

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