In short...

Simon van der Meer,

the inventor (among other

bright and ingenious ideas)

of the stochastic beam cooling,

passed away almost a year ago.

In 1984 the Nobel Prize in Physics

was awarded to Simon and Carlo Rubbia

for the discovery of the W and Z bosons

-the elementary particles that mediate the weak interaction-

in  the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron collider.

Their CERN colleagues described

the pair's accomplishment

using a phrase coined by Gösta Ekspong

head of the Nobel Committee:

Simon made it possible, Carlo made it happen.

Phrase that reminds me another one

coined by an anonymous achiever:

'Thanks to my parents for making this possible,

and thanks to my children for making it necessary.'