Images from Eight Decades: the 1970s

Andrew Sessler, an accelerator physicist became the Lab’s third director and presided over a new emphasis on energy and environmental sciences.  From atmospheric and indoor air studies, to water quality and seismic research, to the creation of energy-efficient “smart windows,” the Lab moved to the forefront in the development of green technologies. However, particle physics continued be play a major role. This era saw the creation of the SuperHILAC (for super-heavy ion linear accelerator), which could accelerate ions as heavy as uranium, and the invention of the Time Projection Chamber (TPC), a system for detecting subatomic particles that remains a mainstay of high-energy physics research.