Letter: Friendly Competition

Your article concerning the award of the 1990 Rossi Prize to Stirling Colgate [The Scientist, June 25, 1990, page 21] contains one error. The work Dr. Colgate did in the 1960s on neutrino emission from supernovae was done at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, not at Los Alamos. Dr. Colgate defected from California to New Mexico after the work you cited was completed. It was a privilege, a pleasure, and an education to work with him during his tenure at Livermore. There is a long-standing, frie

Written byRichard White
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Your article concerning the award of the 1990 Rossi Prize to Stirling Colgate [The Scientist, June 25, 1990, page 21] contains one error. The work Dr. Colgate did in the 1960s on neutrino emission from supernovae was done at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, not at Los Alamos.

Dr. Colgate defected from California to New Mexico after the work you cited was completed. It was a privilege, a pleasure, and an education to work with him during his tenure at Livermore. There is a long-standing, friendly competition between the two laboratories. It is unconscionable that Los Alamos be permitted to appropriate both the genius of Dr. Colgate and credit for the calculations you cite.

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