Alvin Virgil Tollestrup (March 22, 1924 – February 9, 2020) was an American high-energy particle physicist best known for his key roles in the development of the superconducting magnets for Fermilab's Tevatron and the formation of CDF.
After he was discharged, he entered the California Institute of Technology[4] in 1946,[5] where he worked with William Alfred Fowler and Charles Christian Lauritsen.
[4] Tollestrup visited the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in 1957/58 with a fellowship from the National Science Foundation.
At the lab, he learned of Fermilab director Robert R. Wilson's plans to build a superconducting accelerator, which would come to be called the Tevatron.
Tollestrup began working with the group developing the superconducting magnets for the accelerator.