Egil Lillestøl

In 2007, he was awarded the Research Council of Norway's Award for Excellence in Communication of Science for "dissemination of basic physics to schoolchildren and the public".

Lillestøl put a strong emphasis on physics communication. In addition to teaching at university level and giving presentations at international conferences, he also communicated complex physics concepts to both school children and the general public. He was a regular lecturer at the European Space Camp from 2001 onwards.

He co-authored the popular science book The Search for Infinity (1994), which has been translated into eight other languages. Lillestøl also contributed to the preparation of the Norwegian textbook Generell fysikk for universiteter og høgskoler (General Physics for Universities and University Colleges) (2001). Furthermore, he was also one of the main drivers behind the UNESCO-supported traveling exhibition “Science bringing nations together”, organised jointly by JINR and CERN.

Still affiliated with University of Bergen, Lillestøl took up positions at CERN. He was Deputy Head of CERN's Physics Division from 1990 to 1992. After this he split his time between the university and CERN. From 1992 to 2009 he was Head of the European School of Particle Physics, CERN Schools of Physics.

Lillestøl graduated in 1964 from the University of Bergen and obtained his PhD from the same university in 1970. He was appointed associate professor at the university the same year and appointed professor in 1984. Leading up to his professorship in Bergen, he had been a fellow at CERN (1964–1967) in Geneva, Switzerland and a guest researcher at Collège de France (1973) in Paris.

Egil Sigurd Lillestøl (19 March 1938 — 27 September 2021) was a Norwegian experimental elementary particle physicist.