Chapter 3 on Alvin Tollestrup, my experimental physics thesis advisor, describes the singular contributions he made to physics, and what was required to practice experimental particle physics at the highest level. What I learned from him affected me profoundly, giving me the understanding of experiments necessary for the discovery of quarks.

Tollestrup: Developed photomultipliers as particle detectors to obtain the most acute values of the masses of the light elements. Designed the RF system and a million-volt pulse transformer to inject electrons into Caltech’s Synchrotron that observed the first pion-nucleon resonance beyond its peak. Found the pion’s beta decay into an electron and neutrino at CERN, removing the last obstacle to the acceptance of the V-A theory of parity violation. Performed the first users group experiment at the Bevatron. Designed the first superconducting magnets for Fermilab’s Tevatron. Helped convert the Tevatron to a proton-antiproton collider, the most powerful collider for 25 years until the LHC at CERN was constructed. For this work he received the National Medal of Technology  and Innovation.