Janet Conrad

Last updated
Janet Marie Conrad
Born (1963-10-23) October 23, 1963 (age 60)
Wooster, Ohio
Education Swarthmore College (B.A. 1985)
Oxford University (M.Sc., 1987)
Harvard University (Ph.D., 1993)
Awards Guggenheim Fellow
Sloan Research Fellow
Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award
Scientific career
FieldsExperimental Particle Physics
Institutions Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Columbia University
Fermilab

Janet Marie Conrad (born 1963) is an American experimental physicist, researcher, and professor at MIT studying elementary particle physics. Her work focuses on neutrino properties and the techniques for studying them. In recognition of her efforts, Conrad has been the recipient of several highly prestigious awards during her career, including an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and the American Physical Society Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award.

Contents

Education

Conrad obtained a physics B.A. from Swarthmore College in 1985. She then went to Oxford University to complete a M.Sc. in High Energy Physics as a member of the European Muon Collaboration in 1987 then to Harvard University to complete a PhD in High Energy Physics in 1993. [1]

Career

Following Conrad's sophomore year at Swarthmore, she spent her summer in Cambridge, Massachusetts working with Francis Pipkin at Harvard, at her uncle's suggestion. [2] The following summer, Conrad worked with him at Fermilab. [2]

After graduating from Harvard in 1993, Conrad took a position as a postdoctoral research associate at the Nevis Laboratories, operated by Columbia University. In 1995, she joined Columbia's physics department as an assistant professor. In 1996 she was awarded the DOE Outstanding Junior Investigator Award for a study entitled Construction of a Decay Channel for the NuTeV Experiment at Fermilab . [3] She gained tenure at Columbia in 1999. In 2002, she was nominated by the American Physical Society's Division of Particles and Fields for fellowship with the APS, citing "her leadership in experimental neutrino physics, particularly for initiating and leading the NuTeV decay channel experiment and the Mini-BooNe neutrino oscillations experiment". [4] From 2005 until 2008, Conrad was a Columbia Distinguished Faculty Fellow, and was promoted to the endowed position of Walter O. Lecroy Professor in 2006. [1] In 2008, Conrad left Columbia to join MIT's physics department as a professor. [1]

Conrad is a member of several physics collaborations, including MicroBooNE, DAEδALUS, Short-Baseline Near Detector (SBND), and IceCube. She was previously a member of Double Chooz (2006-2014), SciBooNE (2005-2011), MiniBooNE (1997-2014), CCFR/NuTeV (1993-2001), E665 (1984-1996), and EMC (1985-1986). [1]

In addition, she has acted as a spokesperson for IsoDAR/DAEdALUS [5] and MiniBooNE, [1] of which she was a founding member. [6]

Other

In 2012, Conrad took part in a panel with the World Science Festival, speaking to the public about neutrinos [7] .

Inspired by detector development efforts while working on IceCube [8] , Conrad took part in the development of a low-cost tabletop muon detector [9] .

In 2015, Conrad and fellow MIT professor Lindley Winslow were consulted as experts in the culture and science of physics for the 2016 film Ghostbusters [10] . [11]

Personal life

Janet Conrad was born October 23, 1963, in Wooster, Ohio. [1] She was a member of 4-H as a child in Ohio. [2]

Conrad is the niece of chemistry Nobel Laureate William Lipscomb. [2]

Conrad is married to fellow physicist Vassili Papavassiliou, [2] a professor at New Mexico State University [12]

Honors and awards

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "cv2016.pdf" (PDF). MIT. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Fun With Physics". The New Yorker. 2 June 2003. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  3. 1 2 "DOE OUTSTANDING JUNIOR INVESTIGATOR PROGRAM AWARDEES" (PDF). DOE Office of Science. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  4. 1 2 "APS Fellow Archive". American Physical Society. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  5. ↑ "Janet Conrad". Plasma Science and Fusion Center. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  6. 1 2 "Janet Conrad". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  7. ↑ "What Do Neutrino Oscillations Tell Us?". YouTube. World Science Festival. 21 November 2014. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  8. ↑ "CosmicWatch" . Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  9. ↑ "The $100 muon detector". 19 August 2016. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  10. ↑ "Ghostbusters: Yes, the Equations are Correct". Sloan Science and Film.
  11. ↑ "The MIT Physicists Who Infused Ghostbusters With Real Science". Wired. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  12. ↑ "Vassili Papavassiliou". New Mexico State University. Archived from the original on 18 October 2018. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  13. ↑ "tmp139.DOC - Keasbey Memorial Fdn Directory of Scholars.pdf" (PDF). Keasbey Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  14. ↑ "Janet Conrad". The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers: Recipient Details. National Science Foundation. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  15. ↑ "Past Fellows". Archived from the original on 14 March 2018. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  16. ↑ "2001 Maria Goeppert Mayer Award Recipient". American Physical Society. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  17. ↑ "Columbia Sweeps Mayor's Awards in Science and Technology; Giuliani Will Honor Six Faculty or Alumni on March 6". Columbia News. 2 Mar 2001. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  18. ↑ "Conrad, Doyle named Guggenheim fellows". MIT News. 8 April 2009. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  19. ↑ "Crafting smaller-scale particle accelerators to better probe the nature of reality". On The Beam - Bose Fellows. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
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