from Mike B. at BNL

Mike is the Accelerator Physics Division Head in the Collider-Accelerator Department at BNL.

I first met Leif in 1991 after starting work in the AGS Department at BNL. I think he was a bit suspicious of a theoretically-inclined astrophysicist, but I was from Cornell, so that counted for something. Leif was wonderful to work with. He always had a smile and a twinkle in his eye. Mind you, the twinkle had a bit of mad scientist to it and did not appear to be entirely benign. Nonetheless it was always fun.

I remember him taking stairs two at a time and going for walks in the woods at lunch. Leif always seemed to appreciate life and, as far as I can tell, had no sense of entitlement to anything. That last characteristic was really striking. Leif Ahrens tried to earn his salary every day. If things were quiet he would find something useful to do. He was a supervisor’s dream. Not that Leif was really supervised by anybody.

He knew what was important, he knew what he could do, and he made the best contribution he could. What would the world would be like if more of us acted like that?