Burton Richter

Burton Richter (March 22, 1931 – July 18, 2018) was an American physicist and Nobel laureate who made groundbreaking contributions to particle physics. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Richter studied physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and went on to conduct his most significant research at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). In 1974, he led the team that discovered the J/psi particle, a subatomic particle composed of a charm quark and its antiquark. This discovery was revolutionary because it provided evidence for the existence of the charm quark, a fundamental particle predicted by theoretical physics but never before observed. Richter shared the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physics with Samuel Ting, who independently made the same discovery. Beyond his research achievements, Richter was a passionate advocate for science education and served as director of SLAC for many years. His work fundamentally advanced our understanding of particle physics and the Standard Model, establishing him as one of the most important physicists of the late 20th century.