EARLE LEONARD LOMON

LOMON, Earle Leonard Earle L. Lomon, nuclear theorist and MIT Center for Theoretical Physics co-founder, dies at 94 Born on November 15, 1930, in Montreal, Quebec. Earle passed peacefully in his sleep, on March 7, 2025, in Newton, Massachusetts. Earle was the only son of Harry Lomon and Etta Rappaport. At just 16 years old, Earle met Ruth Margaret Lomon (Jones) who would become his best friend, wife and partner in life. Their shared love for classical music drew them both to the Classical Music Club at Montreal High School, where Earle served as president and Ruth was already an accomplished musician. Earle and Ruth graduated from McGill University in 1951, Earle with a Bachelor of Science. After graduation, Earle and Ruth married and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to go to graduate school. Earle received his PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in theoretical physics in 1954. Cambridge is also where Ruth and Earle started their family and the city they called home between their many travels across the globe. Over the years, the Lomon family would travel to many places for Earle and Ruth's work, including Ithaca, New York; Montreal, Canada; Denmark; Israel; Switzerland; England; France; Japan; China; Italy; and Los Alamos, New Mexico. Earle was well-known in the world of physics, holding tenure at MIT as a physics professor from 1970 to 1999, when he retired from the university. In 1968, Earle was a founding member of the Center for Theoretical Physics at MIT in 1968. Earle's research focused on the interactions of hadrons: protons, neutrons, mesons and nuclei, before it was understood that they were composed of quarks and gluons. He was interested primarily in the forces between protons and neutrons at low energies, where the effects of quarks and gluons are hidden by their confinement. In 1965, Earle was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship and served as a visiting scientist at the Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN). Beginning in 1968, Earle began his work, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), that would continue until 2015 and make New Mexico the Lomon family's second home. Earle's time at LANL also included work with Navajo physicist and medicine man, Fred Begay, who introduced Ruth and Earle to his family and culture. Earle loved hiking and could be found on a trail in any place he traveled to with Ruth by his side. His favorite peak was Baldy Mountain in New Mexico. Earle was also a mathematician who lent his creativity in educational pedagogy to the Unified Science and Mathematics for Elementary Schools (USMES). During his time with USMES, Earle developed textbooks, educational tools, research and creative problem solving curriculum. Earle would often bring the educational tools home to see what his children thought, testing them at the dinner table. In 2001, Earle would leave retirement to serve as the Program Director for Mathematical Theory for the United States National Science Foundation, a position he would hold until 2013. Earle is survived by his daughters, Glynis Lomon and Deirdre Lomon; his son, Dylan Lomon; his grandchildren, Devin Lomon, Alexia Layne-Lomon and Benjamin Garner; as well as six great-grandchildren. There will be a Memorial Service at a later date. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation, at https://lanlfdn.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create/fund?funit_id=1121

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