Leon Max Lederman (born July 15, 1922) is an American experimental physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1988 for his work on neutrinos. He is Director Emeritus of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois. He founded the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, in Aurora, Illinois, in 1986.

He received his bachelor's degree from the City College of New York in 1943, and received a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1951. He then taught at Columbia until 1979, when he took an extended leave of absence to become Fermilab's director. He resigned from Columbia and Fermilab effective in 1989 and taught briefly at the University of Chicago before moving to the Illinois Institute of Technology, where he is now Pritzker Professor Ermeritus of Science.

His current occupation is a resident scholar in the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy.

Quotes

"Physics is not a religion. If it were, we'd have a much easier time raising money." -- Leon Lederman

Publications

• The God Particle : If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question? by Leon Lederman, Dick Teresi (ISBN 0385312113)
  
• From Quarks to the Cosmos by Leon Lederman and David N. Schramm (ISBN 0716760126)
  
• Portraits of Great American Scientists Leon M. Lederman, et al (ISBN 1573929328)