Colleagues and students of Klaus Halbach from around the world gathered at LBL on February 3 for the Halbach Symposium on Magnet Technology, held in honor of Halbach's 70th birthday. Halbach is known worldwide for his work on accelerator magnets, computer models, and beam-position monitors, and especially his work on permanent magnet insertion devices, which made third-generation rings such as the ALS feasible. He has consulted at most of the storage ring projects around the world, many of which have installed Halbach design undulators and wigglers.
The Symposium, organized by Brian Kincaid and Ross Schlueter of the Advanced Light Source and Roger Carr of Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, drew more than 100 participants and featured technical presentations, personal recollections by colleagues and long-time associates, and the publication of two volumes assembled specifically for the meeting. "The Art and Science of Magnet Design" includes technical papers written especially for the symposium, as well as a selection of Klaus' scientific notes.
The technical talks spanned a broad range. Several described applications of Klaus' magnet designs outside of the insertion device arena, including an accelerator for medical radioisotope production and an electromechanical battery developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Guest speakers acknowledged Halbach's special ability to teach and advise his students and colleagues with seemingly endless patience, and to inspire others through his joy of physics and mathematics.
Halbach worked in nuclear physics, nuclear magnetic resonance, plasma physics, and magnet physics, and proved, by his late contributions to magnet design, that one's physics career need not be over by age 30. Though he accepted early retirement from LBL in 1991, he continues to work in magnet design and accelerator design internationally, and has taught an entire generation of scientists and engineers the essential art and science of magnet design.