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stanford university PPHYSICSHYSICS Newsletter DEPARTMENT FEBRUARY 2006 February, 2006 to major discover- Award from the University of Rome, Letter from the Chair ies. He is the recipi- recognizing outstanding achievements ent of numerous in physics, for his “important new Dear Physics alumni and friends, awards, and a directions in the understanding of the member of the mechanism of symmetry breaking and National Academy new physics at the TeV scale.” Patricia appy New Year! This year promis- of Sciences. His Burchat was one of four Stanford fac- es to bring many exciting changes main research ulty chosen for a prestigious 2005 Stanley Wojcicki H to the Physics Department. I am interest is funda- Guggenheim Fellows Award. Andrei pleased to report that Professor Phil mental light-matter interactions, and Linde has just received a Robinson Bucksbaum has joined our faculty, with especially the control of quantum Prize for Cosmology from the Univer- a joint appointment in SLAC, Physics systems using ultrafast laser fields. We sity of Newcastle upon Tyne in Eng- and Applied Physics. Prof. Bucksbaum, are very excited about this appoint- land; this is an annual international formerly of the ment, which will help invigorate our prize for important contributions in University of department and the greater physics the field of cosmology. Previous Michigan, enjoys a community. Robinson Prize recipients include Sir world-wide reputa- Martin Rees, Prof. Alan Guth and tion as one of the I am also happy to report that four Prof. Kip Thorne. In addition, David leaders in atomic, of our faculty received important Goldhaber-Gordon received the 2006 molecular, and awards. Prof. Savas Dimopoulos National Academy of Science Award optical physics received the J. J. Sakurai Prize for his for Initiatives in Research — a prize research, having outstanding work in the field of theo- awarded annually to recognize innova- pioneered new retical particle physics. Savas was also tive young scientists and to encourage Phil Bucksbaum techniques leading honored by a Caterina Tomassoni continued on page 8 Physics Alumni Reception on October 21, 2005 hanks very much to those of you who were able to attend our special physics alumni reunion reception, T held in Varian Physics on Friday, October 21, 2005, as part of the Reunion Homecoming Weekend. The Physics department reception was attended by approximately 25 physics alumni, in addition to a number of Physics faculty, staff and current students. Professors Douglas Osheroff and Giorgio Gratta were in attendance to meet with some of their former students and colleagues. The celebratory event provided a wonderful opportunity for alumni, faculty, and staff to mix and mingle. It was very nice to catch up with former students, and we hope that you will check our website http://www.stanford.edu/dept/physics/ index.shtml for announcements of future alumni events, and plan to attend! Please email updates about your life/career to [email protected] for future newsletter articles. stanford university PHYSICS NEWSLETTER Professor James Cronin the 2006 Robert Hofstadter Memorial Lecturer e are pleased to announce Fellow of the American Academy of that the annual Robert Hof- Arts and Sciences. Prof. Cronin is stadter Memorial Lectures also the spokesperson emeritus and will be given this year by U.S. Principal Investigator for the James W. Cronin, Professor Pierre Auger Project. EmeritusW of Physics and Astronomy, Enrico Fermi Institute at the Univer- The Hofstadter lectures are scheduled sity of Chicago. Professor Cronin is for Monday, April 3, 2006 (an even- the recipient of numerous awards, ing public lecture at 8:00 PM) and including the 1980 Nobel Prize for Tuesday, April 4 (an afternoon col- Physics and the National Medal of loquium at 4:15 PM). Both lectures Science in 1999. He is a member of will be held at Stanford University, the National Academy of Sciences, and we hope that you will plan to James Cronin the American Physical Society, and a attend. h EVENING PUBLIC LECTURE AFTERNOON COLLOQUIUM 8:00 pm – Monday, April 3, 2006 4:15 pm – Tuesday, April 4, 2006 COSMIC RAYS: The Pierre Auger Observatory A fascinating scientific history for Highest Energy Cosmic Rays In 1912 it was discovered that radiation arrived on earth from The existence of cosmic rays with energies in excess of 1020 eV rep- outer space. The story of this discovery is linked with adven- resents a scientific mystery whose solution can be found, if at all, ture, false starts and scientific rivalry. We will present some only by experimentation. I will describe the Pierre Auger Observa- vignettes from this story. For years, a controversy raged as tory, now nearing completion in Malargue, Mendoza Province, to what was the nature of this radiation — charged or neu- Argentina. The observatory detects showers of particles produced tral particles. A prominent discovery was made by the French by high energy cosmic rays (protons, nuclei, perhaps photons and physicist Pierre Auger in Paris in 1938. He found among this neutrinos). Showers produced by cosmic rays of 1020 eV produce radiation particles with energies more than eight orders of about 1011 particles spread over 50 km2 on the ground. Two tech- magnitude greater than any natural or artificially produced niques are employed to observe the showers: detection of the show- radiation native to our earth. The energy of the cosmic rays er particles on the ground and detection of fluorescence light pro- observed by Auger was about 1015 eV — a macroscopic duced as the shower particles pass through the atmosphere. The energy in a microscopic particle. In 1963, a cosmic ray was observatory is spread over 3000 km2 as the fluxes of the most ener- discovered with an energy of 1020 eV, an energy of 16 joules. getic cosmic rays are very small, roughly one/km2/century above an To understand how nature produces these highest energy energy of 1020 eV. I will describe the design principles and con- cosmic rays has been my passion and the inspiration for a struction of the observatory and early results from the observatory, large observatory in Argentina in an attempt to solve the mys- which has recorded data even while partially complete. tery. In the Physics Colloquium tomorrow I will describe the observatory and some of the early results. I invite all of you The afternoon colloquium lecture will be held in our Hewlett to attend. The lecture is a bit more technical, but I believe it is quite comprehensible because of the simplicity of the Teaching Facility, 370 Serra Street. This lecture will be held detection principles. in Room 201. If you have further questions, please contact us by phone: (650) 723-4347, fax: (650) 723-1821 or email: This evening lecture will be held on campus in our [email protected]. We hope you will plan to join us for Hewlett Teaching Facility, 370 Serra Street, (Room 200). these very exciting talks. 2 stanford university PHYSICS NEWSLETTER News from KIPAC By Roger Blandford, KIPAC Director his has been a good year for the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology. Our two new faculty members, Tom Abel and Steve Allen, are settling in well, and the Institute T continues to grow, especially as GLAST approaches launch in 2007. There is broad interest in many, contemporary research areas, including dark energy and dark matter, black holes, neutron stars, Philip “Flip” Tanedo quasars, supernovae and gamma ray bursts. Work on designing a camera for the proposed Large Synoptic Survey Telescope has continued under Steve Kahn’s leadership and, as Romani and Sako Physics Undergraduate describe elsewhere in this newsletter, the Hobby-Eberly Telescope has been extremely successful in finding and studying supernovae. Philip Tanedo Receives continued on page 7 Marshall Scholarship hysics undergraduate student Philip “Flip” Tanedo was selected for a prestigious Mar- P shall Scholarship. These two-year scholarships are awarded annually to at least 40 American students to study at the graduate or sometimes undergraduate level at any British institution in any field. The scholarship covers university fees, living expenses, research and travel. Tanedo, 21, is a senior majoring in physics and mathematics. He will study mathematics at Cambridge University for his first year and spend his second year studying at the Institute for Parti- Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, artist rendering cle Physics Phenomenology at the University of Durham. Tanedo’s course of study will focus on classes in string theory, field theory, cosmology and mathematical physics as applicable to particle physics. “Both universities would provide a chance to col- laborate with some of the most active theoretical physicists on the other side of the Atlantic — a rare opportunity for students in the United States,” Tanedo wrote in his application. “It is my hope that my time spent at these institutions would further develop new and novel ways of looking at problems that I can apply to my research when I return to the United States to pursue a Ph.D.” Our congratulations to Flip on this impressive Physics-Astrophysics building, under construction achievement! h 3 stanford university PHYSICS NEWSLETTER Savas Dimopoulos Awarded the 2006 J.J. Sakurai Prize A D avas Dimopoulos has won Howard Georgi in 1981. This the- N A L the 2006 J. J. Sakurai Prize ory made a precise quantitative R E E in Theoretical Physics, “for prediction, the unification of cou- P S : his creative ideas on dynamical plings, which was experimentally O T O symmetry breaking, supersym- confirmed in 1991 by experiments H P metry, and extra spatial dimen- at CERN and SLAC, establishing sions, which have shaped theo- it as the leading theory for physics retical research on TeV-scale beyond the standard model.
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