Robert Cahn, the new director of the Physics Division at LBL, first approached the senior researcher on the project, Gerson Goldhaber. But for Goldhaber the chance to work on supernovae had represented a freedom from the kind of responsibilities he’d held for four decades at behemoth particle accelerators. Muller had moved on. The next choice was Saul Perlmutter. Cahn consulted with Muller: Was the kid ready? Muller thought maybe so.
