Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron’s Former Accelerator Division Director Passes Away

Prof. Gustav-Adolf Voss, former director of the accelerator division at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, passed away on 5 October in Hamburg at the age of 84.

Gustav-Adolf Voss was a member of the DESY directorate from 1973 until 1994. Under his leadership, the double storage ring DORIS was put into operation. Voss was responsible for the construction of the Positron-Electron Tandem Ring PETRA that could be put into operation six months earlier than planned in 1978. He was also project leader for the construction of Germany's largest particle accelerator, the 6.3-kilometer-long Hadron-Electron Ring Accelerator HERA at DESY. After his retirement, Voss assumed a leading role in the construction of the SESAME synchrotron radiation source in Jordan.

Among other distinctions, Voss was awarded the 1994 Robert R. Wilson Prize of the American Physical Society. In recognition of his outstanding success in promoting international physics for many years, especially for his effective support of Eastern European physicists after the breakup of the Soviet Union, his stimulation of the development of accelerator technology throughout Europe, and his leadership in the SESAME project, Voss received the renowned Tate Medal of the American Institute of Physics (AIP) in 2010. In 2009 he was the first one to be awarded with the golden DESY pin.