Lederman, Leon M.

Lederman, Leon M. (Max)

(1922– ) physicist; born in New York City. He taught and performed research at Columbia University (1951–79), before becoming director of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (1979–89). He shared the 1988 Nobel Prize with Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger for their discovery (1960–62) of a new subatomic particle, the muon neutrino. A prolific researcher in particle physics, Lederman retired from Fermi to teach at the University of Chicago (1989).