Posts Tagged ‘Nuclear Science Division’

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Lab Researchers Win DOE Early Career Awards

Monday, May 14th, 2012

Five Berkeley Lab researchers were on the list of 68 recipients from 47 institutions in the third year of the Early Career Research Program managed by DOE’s Office of Science. The awards, which focus on areas of high priority for the nation and DOE’s mission, support exceptional researchers during the critical stages of their formative work by funding their research for up to five years and $2.5 million. Lab winners include (l-r) Hank Childs (CRD), John Dueber (PBD), Oliver Gessner (CSD), Daniel Kasen (NSD), and Kevin Wilson (CSD). More>

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Hunting for High-Energy Cosmic Rays With IceCube

Thursday, April 19th, 2012

Very rare cosmic rays reach particle energies tens of millions of times greater than the Large Hadron Collider can achieve on Earth. There are two good candidates for natural accelerators of cosmic rays and associated neutrinos packing that kind of wallop, and the IceCube neutrino telescope at the South Pole, to which Berkeley Lab is a key contributor, has just dumped very cold water on one of them: gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). “We would have expected to see 8.4 events corresponding to GRB production of neutrinos,” says Spencer Klein of the Nuclear Science Division. “We didn’t see any” – deepening the cosmic-ray mystery. More>

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‘Occupy IceCube’ Among Highlights of Recent Collaboration Meeting

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012

Some 180 physicists and astronomers from the North America, Europe, Asia and Australia came together last week for the spring meeting of the IceCube Collaboration. IceCube is a neutrino observatory in the South Pole. Participants were welcomed by Berkeley Lab ALD James Symons and UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgenau, as well as a mock “Occupy IceCube” protest. The event included scientific talks on the data emerging from the observatory, a tour of the Advanced Light Source, a banquet at the International House on campus, and IceCube trivia night, and evening tour of Alcatraz. Go here to learn more about IceCube.

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Two Lab Scientists Named American Physical Society Fellows

Monday, March 5th, 2012

Volker Koch (right), a senior scientist in the Nuclear Science Division and program head for theory, has been named a Fellow of the American Physical Society “for his contributions to the understanding of fluctuations and penetrating probes in high-energy nuclear collisions.” Yury Suzuki (left) in the Materials Sciences Division (and a UC Berkeley professor of materials science and engineering) was cited “for innovative work in epitaxial oxide thin films, nanostructures and devices, with tailored magnetic and electronic properties, and the development of platforms for photonic structures.” All APS Fellows for 2011 are here.

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In Memoriam: Engineering Division’s Susanna Jacobson

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

Susanna Jacobson, a Lab employee for 21 years, passed away on Feb. 8 after battling breast cancer. She started with the Engineering Division in 1991, matrixed to the Data Acquisition Software group in the Nuclear Sciences Division. In 1998 she was matrixed to the Advanced Light Source Controls Group. She belonged to the Lab’s Knitting Club and enjoyed singing Karaoke with her ALS co-workers. A memorial service will be held Saturday, Feb. 25, from 4-6 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Kensington. Go here to read an obituary written by her colleagues, including memorial and donation details.

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Nuclear Science Talk Tomorrow Looks at ‘Legacy of Rutherford’

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

John Schiffer of Argonne National Lab’s Physics Division visits the Lab tomorrow to present a talk on “The Legacy of Rutherford: A Centennial Perspective on Nuclear Physics” at 11 a.m. in the Building 50 Auditorium. In 1911 Ernest Rutherford discovered that at the core of atoms there is a very massive, electrically charged, nucleus. This experimental discovery brought about a major revolution in the understanding of the physical world. Schiffer will review the shifting focus and some of the major milestones in the research engendered by Rutherford’s discovery. The lecture is sponsored by the Nuclear Sciences Division.

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In Memoriam: Kenneth Crowe, 1926 – 2012

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

Distinguished nuclear physicist Kenneth Crowe, at Berkeley Lab from 1956 and a professor of physics at UC Berkeley from 1958 to 1991, died Feb. 1. Crowe was precocious and skipped his high-school senior year to attend Brown University, graduating in 1948. He received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1952, with Luis Alvarez and Wolfgang Panofsky on his committee, and in 1957 was co-author of the influential “Fundamental Constants of Physics.” His career focused on medium-energy experiments, in particular on the muon, the electron’s massive cousin. An enthusiastic cellist and sailor, Crowe is survived by his wife, Penny, and his six children. An obituary will follow later. More>

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Lab’s Jacobs Explains Installation of ALICE 80-Ton ‘Particle Thermometer’

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

Scientists on the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider — including Berkeley Lab nuclear scientist Peter Jacobs — just completed the installation of a crucial component for tracking high-energy particle jets. Without it, physicists would be lacking critical tools to select which events out of billions to store and analyze. More>

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Lab Featured in ‘Physics World’ Top Ten Breakthroughs

Monday, December 19th, 2011

Physics World magazine’s choice of Top 10 Breakthroughs of 2011 includes Nu Xu, Hans Georg Ritter, and Xiaofeng Luo of the Nuclear Science Division, with their colleagues at India’s Tata Institute and the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, for their work on the phase diagram of the quark-gluon plasma. The judges chose “Quarks break free at two trillion degrees” from over 350 news items appearing on physicsworld.com. Berkeley Lab scientists were also Top 10 winners in 2010, for storing antihydrogen atoms. More>

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Girl, Boy Scout Troops Invited to Lab for Nuclear Science Day

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

The Lab’s Nuclear Science Division and the Center for Science and Engineering Education are hosting Nuclear Science Day on Saturday, March 3. The event is designed for youth in grades six through 12 and will include a tour of the 88-inch cyclotron, cosmic ray detection, and an investigation of radioactivity in our daily lives. All participants will receive an event badge, and Boy Scouts can earn a merit badge. Lab employees are encouraged to invite the troops they lead or their children belong to. Registration deadline is Jan. 21. More>

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