from John M. at BNL

John is the Head of the Controls Software Group in the Collider-Accelerator Department at Brookhaven National Lab,

I came to Brookhaven Lab in 1989 — it seemed to me like Leif had always been there. I do computer software, and the way things work there, we often have teams of people who come together, and so I might work on a project where Leif would be the physicist involved.

I think the first time I was assigned a job to write an application program for an accelerator system, the system was the AGS Gamma-jump, and Leif was leading the project. I was lucky, because I think Leif exemplified what's best about working at Brookhaven Lab. He was obviously very smart. He was enthusiastic, and dedicated to getting the job done. He also clearly respected the different skills that each different person brought to the project team, and I always learned something new when I worked on a project with Leif.

I missed Leif's retirement celebration, and I don't think I ever did have the chance to let Leif know just how much I admire him, and how influential he had been in my life and career, and the lives and careers of so many others at Brookhaven Lab. I'm glad that I did communicate a little bit to him in an email a few weeks ago.

Peggy H had told me something about Leif's medical situation and he was on my mind. I went to a meeting where Vincent S. was making a presentation, and I thought about the many times I had sat in a conference room while Leif was walking us all through an explanation of some investigation or other. I wrote Leif an email that included this:

"We are very busy here. There are plenty of new things to deal with, but in many ways we continue to wrestle with all the same types of issues that we have for years - keeping systems running, providing ways to control them that make sense to operators, figuring out what caused some quirky behavior, and so on.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I think of you often (What Would Leif Do in this situation?). I think of you when I see Vincent make presentations about his investigation into some perplexing machine issue - he obviously understands the topic through and through, does his data analysis homework well, and explains the topic with enthusiasm and with enough clarity that a non-accelerator physicist like me can follow.  I think it's not a coincidence that he developed a 'Leif-like' approach to problems."