Since then, I have worked with the group that commissioned and improved the ring and that is now preparing the construction of a second ring to increase the p stacking rate by an order of magnitude.

Van der Meer and Ernest Lawrence are the only two accelerator physicists who have won the Nobel prize. The W and Z bosons had been theoretically predicted some years earlier and their experimental discovery was considered a significant success for CERN. Van der Meer and Rubbia shared the 1984 Nobel Prize for their decisive contributions to the project.