Herman Winick

Herman Winick (born October 2, 1932) is an American scientist and Professor Emeritus at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and the Applied Physics Department of Stanford University.

After receiving his AB (1953) and PhD (1957) in physics from Columbia University, he continued work in experimental high energy physics at the University of Rochester (1957–59) and then as a member of the scientific staff and Assistant Director of the Cambridge Electron Accelerator at Harvard University (1959–73).

He is best known for his leadership role, starting in the mid-1970s, in the development of wiggler and undulator insertion devices as advanced synchrotron radiation sources.

As of 2010 he is focusing largely on the International Centre for Synchrotron-Light for Experimental Science Applications in the Middle East (SESAME), work he began in 1998.

His human rights activities started in the 1980s working on behalf of dissidents from the China, Iran, the Soviet Union, and other countries.

In 2005 he received the Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of Scientists Award from the New York Academy of Sciences.

Winick received the third Andrei Sakharov Prize, from the American Physical Society (APS) in 2010 "for tireless and effective personal leadership in defense of human rights of scientists throughout the world".