A brief online biography of Adrienne Kolb notes that she “lives in Chicago but dwells within the Fermilab archives.” The latter is no longer true. In mid 2015 Kolb retired from her post as Fermilab archivist and historian—she had served as an archivist at the lab in Batavia, Illinois, for almost 32 years.
A historian by training, Kolb joined Fermilab’s History and Archives Project in the fall of 1983. Initially she assisted lab archivist and historian Lillian Hoddeson (now professor emerita of history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) in gathering accelerator-related records and artifacts and conducting oral history interviews. Her job also evolved to include tracking the developments of the multi-billion-dollar Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) project, which was eventually canceled by Congress in 1993.
The story of that project is now told by Kolb, Hoddeson, and physicist and science writer Michael Riordan in Tunnel Visions: The Rise and Fall of the Superconducting Super Collider (University of Chicago Press, 2015). In his review of the book for this month’s issue of Physics Today, former American Institute of Physics CEO Frederick Dylla writes that the authors “illuminate the serious problems that led to the 1993 congressional vote to terminate the SSC” and that “the SSC has lessons for all who advocate the public funding of science.”
By Kolb’s own admission, Tunnel Visions was a project more than 30 years in the making. It is her second book, after Fermilab: Physics, the Frontier, and Megascience (University of Chicago Press, 2008), which was coauthored with Hoddeson and historian of science Catherine Westfall.
Physics Today recently caught up with Kolb to discuss her new book and post-retirement plans.
PT: How did the book come about? What brought the three authors together?
KOLB: My work on Tunnel Visions came about when Fermilab physicist Frank Cole suggested that as Fermilab’s new archivist I should start tracking and collecting the developments of the SSC. In the course of adding this task to my archives work, I found the meetings and plans for the SSC to be fascinating. Simultaneously, I learned a lot about Fermilab’s history—while Lillian and I worked on Fermilab history projects, we had the SSC history in mind.
I attended the first SSC users meeting in Berkeley in May 1985. As Lillian and I began to write articles about Fermilab’s history we realized that by telling the story of the SSC we would also be telling the history of accelerators, which [Fermilab founding director Robert] Wilson had envisioned when he started Fermilab’s History and Archives Project. Lillian wrote a proposal asking for support beyond the Fermilab director’s office, and eventually the NSF began to fund her research and writing efforts. I continued preserving the SSC’s amazing story in Fermilab’s archives [in anticipation of] a future book—through DOE’s and President Reagan’s approvals, the difficult site-selection process, and the project’s move to Texas.
We published our first article on the origins of the SSC in 1993, as the project was under siege in Congress. The SSC Historical Collection came from Texas to the Fermilab archives in 1995. While Lillian was writing a book on John Bardeen, she met Michael and began discussions with him to [coauthor a] history of the transistor. Michael joined our SSC collaboration around 1994.
PT: What were the challenges you faced collaborating, completing the book, and getting the information needed?
KOLB: We struggled to finish Tunnel Visions over the past 20 years while balancing our personal lives, our jobs, and other writing commitments. Schedules were difficult to coordinate: Lillian was teaching at the University of Illinois, and Michael had a job change from SLAC to Santa Cruz while completing other projects. Lillian, Catherine Westfall, and I finished our book on the history of Fermilab. Different graduate students assisting Lillian contributed and moved on. Over the years, many people who helped us in the early stages of our research passed away, leaving their documents to add to the SSC archives at Fermilab. As time passed we gained more documentation for our SSC collection.
I like to say history takes time. We needed historical perspective, and every new piece of information gave us a richer story to tell, but this was taking too long! People kept asking, “Where’s the book?” Finally, it is here.
PT: During your research, was there an interesting story you heard from someone associated with the SSC drama?
KOLB: There were many challenges gathering information on discussions that were not publicly available. How were certain SSC decisions made? Who was in charge? Only through oral history interviews and private discussions were we able to find missing pieces to the puzzle. One particular nagging question was about the animosity between DOE’s associate director of energy research for high-energy and nuclear physics, Bill Hess, and the [SSC’s] central design group (CDG). That problem [influenced] the selection of the SSC director and the subsequent unwillingness of CDG staff to move to Texas, which led to institutional and management inconsistencies.
Changes at DOE and [at the SSC’s prime contractor, Universities Research Association] contributed to additional management struggles. John Peoples, Fermilab’s director and SSC director at the same time from 1993–95, told us how the corporate, government, and academic cultures clashed. There were also many surprises in the site-selection process. I hope readers will enjoy the many background stories in our book.
PT: If the SSC had been completed, what impact would it have had on physics, and how would it have affected Fermilab and other high-energy research facilities in the US and worldwide?
KOLB: The cancellation of the SSC was an embarrassment for the US, damaging to our reputation as reliable international partners, and very difficult to recover from and regain credibility. The Higgs boson would probably have been discovered a decade earlier at the SSC. Ways forward would have been found for forging international collaborations. The international particle-physics community would be benefiting from significant results. The SSC would likely be the world leader in high-energy physics, benefiting the research and development at Fermilab, Brookhaven and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, SLAC, and Cornell. There would still be healthy competition with CERN, Japan, China, and others. The state of US public science education and literacy would be better.
PT: What is your favorite memory of Fermilab and what will you miss the most?
KOLB: My favorite memories of Fermilab involve the sense of community we felt in the 1980s to 1990s. Fermilab was leading in R&D, planning its future, and competing on an international stage, and yet it was a very social and active place. The lab staff was united and committed to exploiting the Tevatron, while also working on supporting efforts toward understanding the universe. There was a sense of adventure and excitement, pushing the boundaries of what a national lab might achieve. The people were dedicated and amazing. Brilliant speakers from all branches of science and industry appeared regularly on [Fermilab’s] Ramsey Auditorium stage informing us of their latest advances. As the culture at DOE changed near the end of the century, the mood and morale at Fermilab changed. Management skills became more valued than scientific goals—I suppose due to budget realities.
Personally I loved the openness of the campus, the beautiful architecture and the meaningful natural surroundings, and the freedom of doing what I loved. It’s a wonderful place to be and I’ll miss its beauty and serenity.
PT: Are you planning to be involved in any book writing or related projects?
KOLB: I look forward to writing more, perhaps a biography of Wilson. I’d also like to write something about the Chicago architect George C. Nimmons.
PT: What books are you currently reading?
KOLB: I just finished reading Empire of Sin (Crown Publishers, 2014), by Gary Krist, about my hometown, New Orleans, at the end of the 19th century. I have many books on my nightstand, including American Pharaoh (Little, Brown and Co, 2000) by Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor, The Third Coast (Penguin Press, 2013) by Thomas Dyja, Why Architecture Matters: Lessons from Chicago (University of Chicago Press, 2001) by Blair Kamin, Collapse (Viking Press, 2005) by Jared Diamond, The Most Wanted Man in China (Henry Holt and Co, 2016) by Fang Lizhi, and Dead Wake (Crown Publishers, 2015) by Erik Larson.
In retirement I’m still too busy to catch up on my reading: I’m helping my husband [University of Chicago astrophysicist and dean of physical sciences Rocky Kolb], being grandmother to our 6-month-old first grandchild, guiding our two youngest children with their wedding plans, reading the newspaper, and walking our dog.
