[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 126 (Thursday, July 26, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1087-E1088]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            TRIBUTE TO HONOR THE LIFE OF DR. BURTON RICHTER

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 26, 2018

  Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of an 
extraordinary American, a

[[Page E1088]]

true patriot, and one of the most highly respected scientists in the 
world, Dr. Burton Richter.
   Burt Richter was born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 22, 1931, and 
died July 18, 2018, at the age of 87, in Palo Alto, California. He 
attended Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania and earned his Bachelor's 
degree and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He 
joined the High Energy Physics Lab at Stanford in 1956, became a full 
professor there in 1967, and he retired as the Paul Piggott Professor 
in Physical Sciences in 2006.
   Burt Richter was an extraordinary scientist. For his discovery of 
the J/psi subatomic particle, called ``the greatest discovery ever in 
the field of elementary particles,'' he won and shared the Nobel Prize 
in 1976 with Samuel Ting of MIT. The discovery, called the 'charm 
quark', became part of the Standard Model of particle physics, 
describing how subatomic particles interact.
   Dr. Richter was the Director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator 
Center, now SLAC, from 1984 to 1999. During his tenure he oversaw the 
construction of the Linear Collider and designed the SPEAR, the 
Stanford Positron Accelerator Ring, which is still in use today. He was 
a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science. He served as President of the International 
Union of Pure and Applied Physics and the American Physical Society.
   Dr. Richter was honored with the National Medal of Science, the 
Enrico Fermi Award and the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award. In 2010, he 
published the book ``Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Climate Change and 
Energy in the 21st Century,'' which explains the facts of climate 
change to non-scientists.
   Mr. Speaker, I ask the entire House of Representatives to join me in 
extending our sincerest condolences to Dr. Richter's wife, Laurose, his 
daughter Elizabeth, son Matthew, daughter-in-law Cheryl, and his 
grandchildren Allison and Jennifer. In doing so we honor a great and 
good man who loved his country and served it with great distinction. 
Burt Richter advanced the betterment of our world and our country. How 
blessed I am to have known him, to have been the beneficiary of his 
wise counsel, and to have been inspired by his integrity and 
patriotism. Simply put, there was no one like him.

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