munich

Björn Wiik, director of Germany's national research centre for particle physics (DESY), died last week after an accident at home.

The 62-year-old Norwegian physicist joined DESY in 1972. With three colleagues, he provided the first experimental proof of the existence of the elementary particle gluon using DESY's Positron-Electron Accelerator.

His death comes at a critical time for the future of TESLA, a 33-km superconducting linear accelerator that Wiik hoped to build at the DESY site in Hamburg by 2010. Plans for TESLA are being developed by 38 institutes in nine countries — including China, Russia and the United States — but financial support has not yet been assured.

Wiik also led the planning and construction of the Hadron-Electron Ring Accelerator, Germany's biggest research facility, which went into operation in 1992. Wiik became head of the DESY in 1993.

The research centre's directors have said that TESLA should be continued “as Wiik would have wished”.