Patricia Burchat | |
---|---|
Born | Patricia Rose Burchat 1958 Ontario, Canada |
Occupation | Professor of Physics |
Spouse | Tony Norcia |
Children | 2 |
Awards | Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow, American Physical Society Gabilan Professor of Physics Guggenheim Fellow |
Academic background | |
Education | B.S., University of Toronto Ph.D., Stanford University |
Thesis | Decays of the Tau Lepton (1986) |
Doctoral advisor | Gary Feldman |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Physicist |
Sub-discipline | Experimental high energy physics Astrophysics |
Institutions | Stanford University |
Notable students | Stephanie A. Majewski |
Website | physics |
Patricia Burchat (born 1958) is the Gabilan Professor of Physics at Stanford University who researches experimental particle physics and cosmology. She is interested in mapping dark matter in the universe,and understanding the nature of dark energy. [1] She was named a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2001,and a Guggenheim Fellow in 2005. [2] [3] In 2012 she became a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. [4]
Born in 1958,Burchat grew up in Barry's Bay,Ontario,Canada,and attended Madawaska Valley District High School. [5] In 1981 she graduated with a B.S. in applied science and engineering from the University of Toronto,and earned a Ph.D. in physics at Stanford University in 1986. [6]
Burchat held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California,Santa Cruz from 1986 to 1988,after which she joined the faculty until 1995. [7] She has been a member of the Stanford Physics faculty since 1995, [7] and served as the chair of the department from 2007 to 2010. [8]
Burchat has been a member of multiple particle physics experiments,including the Mark II experiment at the SLAC Linear Collider and the E791 experiment at Fermilab. She was a founding member of the BaBar experiment at SLAC [6] which explored fundamental particle interactions,especially the weak interaction. In these experiments she researched Z bosons as the carriers of the weak interaction,heavy neutral leptons,semileptonic decay of charm mesons,charm mixing,CP violations in B meson decays,and differences in the way matter and antimatter evolved in time. [6]
Burchat has also been interested in investigating the cosmological evolution of the Universe. She joined the international community developing the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope,aiming to study gravitational bending of light by dark matter and the evolution of dark energy. [9] Her 2008 TED talk,"Shedding light on dark matter",explores these two components making up about 96 percent of the universe. [10]
Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the scale of protons and neutrons, while the study of combination of protons and neutrons is called nuclear physics.
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a federally funded research and development center in Menlo Park, California, United States. Founded in 1962, the laboratory is now sponsored by the United States Department of Energy and administrated by Stanford University. It is the site of the Stanford Linear Accelerator, a 3.2 kilometer (2-mile) linear accelerator constructed in 1966 that could accelerate electrons to energies of 50 GeV.
James Watson Cronin was an American particle physicist.
The BaBar experiment, or simply BaBar, is an international collaboration of more than 500 physicists and engineers studying the subatomic world at energies of approximately ten times the rest mass of a proton (~10 GeV). Its design was motivated by the investigation of charge-parity violation. BaBar is located at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, which is operated by Stanford University for the Department of Energy in California.
Eva Silverstein is an American theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and string theorist. She is a professor of physics at Stanford University and director of the Modern Inflationary Cosmology collaboration within the Simons Foundation Origins of the Universe initiative.
Joel R. Primack is an American physicist. He is a professor of physics and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is a member of the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics.
Helen Rhoda Arnold Quinn is an Australian-born particle physicist and educator who has made major contributions to both fields. Her contributions to theoretical physics include the Peccei–Quinn theory which implies a corresponding symmetry of nature(related to matter-antimatter symmetry and the possible source of the dark matter that pervades the universe) and contributions to the search for a unified theory for the three types of particle interactions. As Chair of the Board on Science Education of the National Academy of Sciences, Quinn led the effort that produced A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas—the basis for the Next Generation Science Standards adopted by many states. Her honours include the Dirac Medal of the International Center for Theoretical Physics, the Oskar Klein Medal from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, appointment as an Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia, the J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics from the American Physical Society, the Karl Taylor Compton Medal for Leadership in Physics from the American Institute of Physics, the 2018 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics from the Franklin Institute, and the 2023 Harvey Prize from Technion -- Israel Institute of Technology.
Ann Elizabeth Nelson was a particle physicist and professor of physics in the Particle Theory Group at the University of Washington from 1994 until her death. Nelson received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2004, and she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011 and the National Academy of Sciences in 2012. She was a recipient of the 2018 J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics, presented annually by the American Physical Society and considered one of the most prestigious prizes in physics.
Gerson Goldhaber was a German-born American particle physicist and astrophysicist. He was one of the discoverers of the J/ψ meson which confirmed the existence of the charm quark. He worked at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with the Supernova Cosmology Project, and was a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley as well as a professor at Berkeley's graduate school in astrophysics.
Lev Borisovich Okun was a Soviet theoretical physicist. He is known for his contributions to particle physics and quantum chromodynamics. He coined the term hadron.
Bruce Winstein was an experimental physicist and cosmologist noted for his early work in elementary particle physics, particularly work toward demonstrating a serious asymmetry between particles and their anti-particles. Later in his career, he worked in experimental cosmology, measuring polarization in the microwave background radiation whose properties date back to the early universe.
James E. Brau is an American physicist at the University of Oregon (UO) who conducts research on elementary particles and fields. He founded the Oregon experimental high energy physics group in 1988 and served as director of the UO Center for High Energy Physics from 1997 to 2016. Prior to joining the Oregon faculty, he served in the Air Force and held positions at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and the University of Tennessee. He is a fellow of both the American Physical Society and also the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2006 he was appointed the Philip H. Knight Professor of Natural Science, an endowed professorship.
Charles Young Prescott is an American particle physicist.
Vera G. Lüth is an experimental particle physicist and professor emerita at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), Stanford University, in the United States. A senator of the Helmholtz Association, she has worked in particle physics at SLAC since 1974. She is a fellow of the American Physical Society.
JoAnne L. Hewett is a theoretical particle physicist on the faculty of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University, where she is a professor in the Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics. Since 2017 she has been the associate lab director of the Fundamental Physics Directorate and the chief research officer at SLAC. Her research interests include physics beyond the Standard Model, dark matter, and hidden dimensions. She is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Frederick Joseph Gilman is an American physicist and the Buhl Professor of Theoretical Physics Emeritus at Carnegie Mellon University.
Risa H. Wechsler is an American cosmological physicist, Professor of Physics at Stanford University, and Professor of Particle Physics and Astrophysics at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. She is the director of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology.
Natalie Ann Roe is an experimental particle physicist and observational cosmologist, and the Associate Laboratory Director for the Physical Sciences Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) since 2020. Previously, she was the Physics Division Director for eight years. She has been awarded as the Fellow of American Physical Society (APS) and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for her exceptional scientific career and contributions.
Joshua A. Frieman is a theoretical astrophysicist who lives and works in the United States. He is a senior scientist at Fermilab and a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago. Frieman is known for his work studying dark energy and cosmology, and he co-founded the Dark Energy Survey experiment. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2022.
Daniel S. Akerib is an American particle physicist and astrophysicist. He was elected in 2008 a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).