Another Accelerator Pioneer Passes Away

[mikeg@SLAC.Stanford.EDU (Michael P. Grissom)]

The following information was taken from a notice in the 7/7/95
San Jose Mercury News:

    Stanley Kaisel died June 22, 1995 in Portola Valley, 
    California at the age of 72.  He helped develop the field 
    of microwave engineering in Silicon Valley.

        "...While working on his doctorate, which he received in
        1949, Mr. Kaisel became a graduate assistant to William
        W. Hansen, who had invented a microwave resonator he
        called the 'rhumbatron' to generate radio waves at very
        high frequencies.

        With a grant from the Office of Naval Research, Hansen 
        and his assistants, Dr. Kaisel, William R. Kennedy, and 
        Clarence Carlson, built the first linear electron 
        accelerator.  It was a 3 1/2 inch [diameter] tube that 
        was three feet long.  It led to the development of X-ray 
        equipment that irradiates cancerous tumors [modern linac 
        based radiotherapy machines].  It also was the forerunner 
        of SLAC's two-mile accelerator..."

    The Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) is now a 50 GeV electron/
    positron linac.  Dr. Kaisel devoted efforts a short time before
    his death to form a Wellness Center through the Stanford 
    University Medical Center.

Dr. Kaisel's passing is noted with sadness by the members of the
old Hansen Laboratory team and the accelerator community as a whole.
-----------------------
Michael P. Grissom
mikeg@slac.stanford.edu
Phone:  (415) 926-2346
Fax:    (415) 926-3030