Draft:John Maxwell Bailey

John Maxwell Bailey (30 September 1935 – 14 February 2024) was an Australian-British Particle Physicist and pioneering expert in Muon storage rings who worked on the 'g minus 2' experiments in collaboration with Emilio Picasso and Frances Farley.

Life and Career
Bailey was the eldest child of Victor Albert Bailey, Professor of Physics at the University of Sydney and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science ; and Joyce Hewitt, a professional concert pianist from New Zealand. During WWII due to VA Bailey's work in Radio-physics, the family moved to the countryside. After they returned, Bailey joined the Sydney Boys High School. He became an accomplished Chess player, winning NSW Junior Chess Champion.

Bailey obtained a degree in Mathematics at the University of Sydney (1953-56) and did National Service in the Australian Navy. He won a Rhodes Scholarship to study Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford (1957–1960). Arriving at The Queen's College, Oxford (his father's alma mater), he was elected Captain of the Oxford University Chess Team. He also met his future wife Elizabeth Rippon, a fellow student from Sheffield.

Graduating with a DPhil, Bailey was awarded a postdoctoral research position at Yale University (1960-4) before being recruited to join the team at CERN (1964-72). The Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire had started operations only ten years earlier to re-establish a collaborative centre of scientific excellence after WWII. Archive video 'In the heart of CERN in 1967 ' showcases their work of this time. Bailey developed his expertise in sub-atomic particles, becoming a world expert in Muon storage rings.



Bailey was involved in the planning, design and operation of high energy particle physics experimental facilities during his time at CERN. He worked on the Muon (g-2) series in the original (g-2) experimental team led by Francis Farley alongside Emilio Picasso. In the Acknowledgements of their summary review 'The Muon (g-2) Experiments at CERN ', Farley and Picasso single John Bailey's contribution out for particular special mention. As the leading expert in muon storage rings, Bailey was first author of the Final Report on the CERN Muon Storage Ring (1979).

High energy physics at CERN involved working with colleagues from around the globe and Bailey was a skilled linguist. His subsequent work took him to other leading edge particle accelerators including Daresbury, Brookhaven, DESY, NIKHEF and TRIUMF. During this international career he became fluent in French, German and Dutch, also conversant in Italian, Turkish and Russian.

During the 1980s Bailey lectured at the University of Liverpool and contributed to experiments at Rutherford Laboratory. He founded Chester Technology and used his computing expertise to install speaking software on home computers for the blind. John and Elizabeth Bailey had five daughters, two of whom followed their father and grandfather to The Queen's College, Oxford. The first, Jane F. Bailey, matriculated in 1979 amongst the first fifteen female undergraduates at the college.

Selected Papers
John M. Bailey was a highly cited researcher, with numerous papers listed on INSPIRE-HEP. From his early work with the Muon (g-2) team at CERN, the most notable publications are:


 * Bailey, J. et al (1968) Precision measurement of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon Physics Letters B Vol.28 Issue 4 p.287-290


 * Bailey, J. et al (1975) New measurement of (g−2) of the Muon Physics Letters B Vol.55 Issue 4 p.420-424


 * Bailey, J. et al (1977) The anomalous magnetic moment of positive and negative muons Physics Letters B, Vol.67 Issue 2 p.225-230


 * Bailey, J. et al (1977) Measurements of relativistic time dilatation for positive and negative muons in a circular orbit Nature 268, p.301-305


 * Bailey, J.M. et al (1979) Final Report on the CERN Muon Storage Ring Nuclear Physics B, Vol.150, p.1-75