Robert Stanek

It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing of Dr. Robert "Bob" Stanek, one of "Chicago's own" high energy physicists, on March 31, 2025, in Chicago. He was 76 years old. Mary, his wife of 44 years, was at his side.
Bob was born in Chicago on Sept. 9, 1948. He attended De La Salle Institute in Chicago for high school, graduating in 1966. Bob developed an interest in physics at an early age, fascinated with the laws of how things work, and the ways of measuring them. This motivated him to study physics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, at which he received a Bachelor of Science degree in1970. He went on to earn a PhD in physics from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1980, completing his thesis work at Fermilab on experiment E-0260. In that same year, he married Mary, his life-partner. He worked briefly in nuclear medicine at the Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital, but the attraction to high energy physics research led him to take on a post-doc position at Argonne National Laboratory. He worked there for the remainder of his professional career as a staff physicist, collaborating on a variety of high energy physics experiments, including: the polarized proton experiment LAMPF at Los Alamos in New Mexico in the 1980's; the electron-proton colliding beam experiment ZEUS at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg, Germany, in the 1990's; and the proton-proton colliding beam experiment ATLAS at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the laboratory "Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire," (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, on which he devoted the remainder of his professional career. Bob retired from Argonne in 2023.
Through the progression of his professional career, Bob developed expertise in the building of the complex detectors and read-out systems used in high energy physics experiments. He was very "hands-on," enjoying not only the planning, building, and commissioning of these detectors, but also the interaction with the wide variety of people who build these systems, with the wide range of backgrounds and expertise that they brought with them, including physicist collaborators, engineers, technicians, and students. In each subsequent experiment, Bob took on increasing levels of responsibility, culminating in being elected to a 4-year position as Project Leader for the TileCal detector, one of the major subsystems of the ATLAS experiment.
Bob's work on TileCal was the part of his career that he was most proud of. At the beginning of 2007, he spent untold hours leading the TileCal team to test the detector in a test beam at CERN. Bob emphasized attention to detail, always questioning measurement results for consistency and accuracy. He was highly creative and resourceful in finding ways to solve problems. This attitude and work ethic led to his being elected as the TileCal project leader, supervising the detector commissioning and seeing the results from the first circulating beam in the LHC in 2008. As a project leader, he was always attentive to the needs of the TileCal community, and he created a comfortable environment for the team to reach its goals. Bob made a point to make everyone feel part of the team, that their efforts and contributions were not only noticed but appreciated. As a colleague remarked, "TileCal was his passion, and the community was his family. He will be remembered as one of the best project leaders of ATLAS TileCal."
Bob will be remembered as having a unique sense of humor, as well as his disdain for bureaucracies and bureaucrats who hindered rather than helped the people doing the work. These qualities sometimes drew the ire of some, but endeared himself to others. He will be remembered for his love of life, the relationships and friendships that he formed throughout his life, and his desire to push the envelope: Playing his banjo on the streets of Hamburg; the many BBQ parties at CERN that he organized to bond the team and celebrate their achievements; his appearance on "60 Minutes" to talk about the CERN experiments; his appearance on "Through the Wormhole" with Morgan Freeman to talk about space travel; and many more. His love of Beardies was well-known to his friends.
Bob was a strong supporter of outreach, and pursued connecting with the next generation of physicists through volunteer activities to help get kids interested in science. Inspired by the predominantly Hispanic community in his neighborhood on the southwest side of Chicago, Bob became interested in helping students pursue college who may not otherwise be able to afford it, especially students from low-income backgrounds or underrepresented groups. Before the pandemic, Bob spent Saturdays volunteering at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry performing physics demonstrations. He also would take demonstrations to local schools to "show kids that physics can actually be fun." He is a donor to the Advanced Physical Society Bridge Program, which works to increase the number of PhDs awarded to students from backgrounds that are not traditionally represented in physics. He also donated to the American Physical Society Legacy Circle, which helps to fund initiatives that will make a positive impact on the physics community.
Bob touched many lives, and he will be missed. He is survived by his loving wife, Mary, their "son" Oliver, and his brother. He is preceded in death by his parents.