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Discovering Neutral Currents, Searching for Grand Unification: not quite what this greenhorn expected! W. Kozanecki Larry Sulak’s first PhD W. Kozanecki The Golden Age of Particle Physics & its Legacy, Boston University, 22 Oct 2005 The reality of a grad student’s life at Harvard BNL expt 613 in its early days A 2nd-generation experiment ..but not all of it as was high-tech… W. Kozanecki The Golden Age of Particle Physics & its Legacy, Boston University, 22 Oct 2005 A little (too much) oil... (I) Spring or Summer 1975, Brookhaven Experiment 613, in the blockhouse. Half of the calorimeter modules are in place, and we are in the process of filling them with liquid scintillator (also known as mineral oil). The electric pump is humming away; Larry, precariously perched on top of the module, peeps through the venting hole to make sure the oil does not overflow. “Telephoooone for Laarrry!” shouts somebody out of the trailer. Professor Sulak, as agile as ever, flies down the scaffolding. Carlo, probably: you know when you start talking, you never know when he will let you go at last… W. Kozanecki The Golden Age of Particle Physics & its Legacy, Boston University, 22 Oct 2005 A little (too much) oil... (II) The trouble is, everybody forgets about the oil - we are all way too busy working on something else. Larry talks, talks, talks: the pump pumps, pumps…The oil rises, pours out of the venting hole, forms a nice little pond on top of the module, then starts dripping down the side walls. Until a panicky Alan comes screaming out of the blockhouse, and finally manages to stop the pump. We mopped the oil as best we could. We sprayed the floor with sand (what a mess - not to mention the fire hazard!). And whenever (i.e. often) somebody had to work on top of the calorimeter, he was oil-skating 20’ above ground…. W. Kozanecki The Golden Age of Particle Physics & its Legacy, Boston University, 22 Oct 2005 What a delightful Sunday! Brookhaven, Spring or Summer 197x, neutrino Experiment 613. Saturday, 11 pm: Witold gets off shift and isn't due back on until Sunday at 3 pm. Alan Entenberg takes over for the night. The day shift (LRS) starts at 7 am. Sunday, 7:30 am: telephone ! Witold is woken up by Alan: "Larry just called: he missed his flight and will be late for his shift. I am exhausted: can you cover for me until Larry gets here?" I dress in a hurry and rush to the counting house. Sunday, 10:30 am: Larry trotts in, fresh and full of energy, and takes on his day shift duties. I am already there, so I might as well stay & get more work done. Sunday, 2:45 pm: time to go home! The Long Island limo is scheduled to pick up Larry at the BNL main gate & take him to LGA. We leave the experiment at the last minute, of course, so when we get to the gate we are told the limo just left. I would have waited for the next limo - it's only one hour ... Larry floors the gas pedal, chases the limo down the LI expressway, catches up with them, and motions them to stop at the next exit. "Have a good flight home", I say ... Sunday, 4 pm: Witold is an hour late for “his” shift. W. Kozanecki The Golden Age of Particle Physics & its Legacy, Boston University, 22 Oct 2005 Bring that plane back here! I did not personnaly witness this one, but Larry swears it did happen. It is a vivid illustration of what he could suceed to do - against all odds.. Logan Airport, 1973-74. Larry is on his way to work on E-1A, Carlo’s already famous neutrino experiment at NAL (it wasn’t called FNAL yet). I think Dave Chen was with him. Planes tend to leave on time - or at least they mean to. Larry doesn’t even try leaving early to the airport would be a waste of working time! So when Larry arrived running at the gate, the flight to Chicago was already pulling back from the terminal. Professor Sulak, I am told, waved so convincingly at the pilot that the plane moved back to the gate: Larry had - yet again - just made it! W. Kozanecki The Golden Age of Particle Physics & its Legacy, Boston University, 22 Oct 2005 A fateful evening: three nervous men @ PRL Brookhaven Lab, early 1975 (I think), a trailer in the woods. Larry,” Mr. Strait” & I were at BNL debugging the experiment. Out of the blue, an already well-known trio appears at the trailer: Cline, Mann & Rubbia. “Let’s go to dinner”, they say. What an unusual honor! It turns out that the three had just come to BNL to submit, in person, the high-y anomaly paper to the PRL editor’s office. They were obviously excited by their putative discovery - but visibly worried as well: were they sticking their neck out too far? It was a good dinner - although the mood was slightly subdued. The two grad students kept a lower profile than usual. As for Larry, I never knew what he thought that evening. I suspect he was stuck between a rock & a hard place... W. Kozanecki The Golden Age of Particle Physics & its Legacy, Boston University, 22 Oct 2005 Larry’s Greek Odyssey Harvard, Summer 1976 (or 1977?). Larry & Beth are going on vacation to Greece: they have found an idyllic island to get away from it all - and in particular from a certain loud voice … Two weeks later, no Larry! e-mail did not exist yet, and neither did faxes: what happened? To say that Carlo gets impatient is an understatement… Finally, somebody gets a phone call: Larry is grounded (literally) by a nasty ear infection. He is forbidden to fly until further notice, and has to stay on his island until cured. I don’t recall how long Larry’s painful recovery took. But I do remember the nuclear explosion in the HEP lab when Carlo was told! Aftershocks shook grad students & staff alike for months on end, and Zeus’s (I mean, Carlo’s) wrath pursued Larry for ever thereafter…. W. Kozanecki The Golden Age of Particle Physics & its Legacy, Boston University, 22 Oct 2005 To Russia with love Summer 1975, two days before the Tbilisi conference: Larry is scheduled to go but is still waiting for a visa to the Soviet Union. Twelve hours before departure: still no visa! Most of us would have given up KGB hospitality isn't exactly something you look forward to. Never mind: Larry calls up Lenny Rivkin (a Harvard undergrad at the time, now a big wheel in ETH-Zürich), and asks for advice on ... how to get into Moscow without a visa! Lenny managed to leave the USSR legally and enter the US officially: surely he must have a few tricks up his sleeve… Ten days later: Larry is back from Tbilisi. "Very interesting conference", he says - not even a hint of a problem. His suitcase is packed with Russian vodka, Armenian cognac, and (I vaguely remember) a decent amount of caviar. His mansion witnesses one of the most memorable parties this student has ever seen. My sister flew in from Brussels that day, to visit me: we went straight from Logan to Brookline, and didn't get home until God remembers when (I don't) ... W. Kozanecki The Golden Age of Particle Physics & its Legacy, Boston University, 22 Oct 2005 L. R. S. : some of my best memories... What a delightful Sunday! A little (too much) oil... Can one swim in there ? The Swiss cheese memo Larry’s Greek Odyssey Target practice at Brookhaven Bring that plane back here! A fateful evening: three nervous men @ PRL To Russia with love You are working for WHO ? ! St George (I mean, St Jim) & the Columbia dragon A week-end outing: Paris to Napoli and back! W. Kozanecki The Golden Age of Particle Physics & its Legacy, Boston University, 22 Oct 2005 Reserve W. Kozanecki The Golden Age of Particle Physics & its Legacy, Boston University, 22 Oct 2005 What I thought research at Harvard would be like… W. Kozanecki The Golden Age of Particle Physics & its Legacy, Boston University, 22 Oct 2005