Lowell Moyer Bollinger died on Sept. 25, 2014, at the age of 91 at The Vicarage by the Sea, a dementia care facility in Harpswell, Maine. Prior to his move there, he lived at Thornton Oaks Retirement Community in Brunswick for several years. Downers Grove, Ill., was his home from 1951 until 2006.

Because his parents were missionaries with Church of the Brethren in India beginning in 1930, from age seven Lowell attended Woodstock School, a boarding school for children of American missionaries in the Himalayan foothills. Upon his return to the U.S., he graduated from Mount Hermon School at age 16, then received a B.A. from Oberlin College in 1943. During WW II, he was assigned to the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory in Berea, Ohio. Following the war, Lowell attended Cornell University, studying with the great physicists who had just come from the Manhattan Project. There he worked in cosmic ray research, using equipment he developed himself, at the depth of 1/2 mile in a nearby salt mine. In 1951, he received a Ph.D. in physics.

Lowell enjoyed a long, illustrious career at Argonne National Laboratory outside of Chicago. He developed an instrument to study the properties of atomic nuclei, a “fast chopper,” and using this at a reactor he became internationally recognized for his studies of nuclear reactions. In 1963, he was named director of Argonne’s Physics Division, in which capacity he served for 10 years. He stepped away from that position and headed up a group developing the use of superconductivity for nuclear accelerators. The resulting accelerator, named ATLAS, continues to be used by many scientists from around the world.

In recognition of this work, Lowell received the Bonner Prize, the highest award given by the American Physical Society in nuclear physics. In addition, he was always proud of the fact that he was the youngest American physicist named as an adviser to the First International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy held in Geneva, Switzerland in 1955.

Lowell leaves his wife, Joanne Shea Low Bollinger of Brunswick; he was predeceased by his first wife Margaret and son Jeffrey. He also leaves daughter Lesley Bollinger of Rockland, ME; daughter Priscilla Bollinger of Steeleville, IL; and grandchildren Ian and Julie Bollinger.

Lowell’s passions beyond physics were nature, music and the Keweenaw Peninsula of Upper Michigan.

Memorial contributions to honor Lowell can be sent to The Nature Conservancy of Upper MI, 101 So. Front St., Ste. 105, Marquette, MI 49855 or Pine Mountain Music Festival, P.O. Box 406, Hancock, MI 49930.

A celebration of Lowell’s life will be held in Eagle Harbor, Mich., during the summer of 2015.