Accelerator physicist Herman Winick has spent a career not only advancing the science of synchrotron light sources, but championing the people and regions too often left outside big science. His advocacy has helped carry large-scale research infrastructure to the developing world, including the African Light Source project.
This profile draws on the Physics Today Q&A “Herman Winick, accelerator physicist and human rights activist,” published on 7 May 2019. The title has been adapted here to emphasise Herman Winick’s contribution to bringing large-scale science infrastructures to the developing world — and, in particular, his contribution to the African Light Source project.
A light source pioneer whose advocacy reaches well beyond the laboratory, into human rights and the equitable spread of big science.
TWO LEGACIESPioneer and advocate
Winick is recognised on two fronts that this page brings together. As an accelerator physicist, he is a pioneer of synchrotron light sources — the powerful research facilities that turn beams of accelerated electrons into intense light for science across physics, chemistry, biology, materials and medicine. As a human rights activist, he has worked to ensure that the benefits of such facilities are not confined to wealthy nations, but reach scientists and communities in the developing world.
AFRICAN LIGHT SOURCEA champion for the continent’s first synchrotron
The same conviction that science infrastructure should serve every region underpins Winick’s support for the African Light Source — the effort to establish Africa’s own synchrotron facility. His contribution to this project is the reason his story is highlighted here, as an example of how scientific excellence and a commitment to global equity can advance together.
