2008 Election: Candidate Information
Vice Chair
Executive Committee
Blayne Heckel
Positions:
Professor, University of Washington, 1991
Associate Professor, University of Washington, 1987
Assistant Professor, University of Washington, 1983
Ph.D., Harvard University, 1981
Main Research Interests:
- Tests of time reversal symmetry violation through the measurement of the electric dipole moments of atoms. Our efforts in Seattle have set upper bounds on the electric dipole moments of Xe and 199 Hg atoms.
- Laboratory tests of gravity. We use torsion balances to test the principle of equivalence, the gravitational inverse square law at short distances, and we use a torsion balance with polarized electrons to test Lorentz invariance and to search for new spin-dependent forces.
- Measurements of the bare neutron-nucleon weak interaction coupling constants. Our recent efforts have been to send a beam of polarized cold neutrons from the NIST reactor through a target of liquid helium. We measure the parity violating rotation of the beam polarization, analogous to optical rotation.
Other Activities and Awards:
APS Fellow, Program Advisory Committee of the LANSCE Users Group, Program Advisory Committee of the NIST Cold Neutron Beam Facility, member of various NSF and DOE review panels, member of the Executive Committee of the APS Topical Group on Precision Measurements and Fundamental Constants.
John Price
Positions and Education:
Professor, U. of Colorado, Boulder, 2001-present
Assoc. Prof., U. of Colorado, Boulder 1995-2001
Assist. Prof., U. of Colorado, Boulder 1989-1995
Research Associate, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, 1986-1989
Ph. D. in Physics, Stanford 1985
B.S. in Physics, magna cum laude, Yale, 1980
Main Research Interests:
table-top particle physics: searches for new forces, charge neutrality of neutral atoms, inverse square law violations
condensed matter physics: molecular crystals, molecular rotors, organic ferroelectrics, quantum transport phenomena in metals
musical acoustics
Other Activities and Awards:
Fellow of the APS, 2004
U. of Colorado Faculty Fellowship, 1996
NSF Presidential Young Investigator, 1990
Fellow of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, 1990
ONR Naval Young Investigator, 1990
Sloan Fellowship, 1991
primary advisor for 9 Ph.D. students and 26 undergraduate researchers since 1989
Director, CU Engineering Physics Program, 2004-present
Director, CU Interdisciplinary Center for Electronics, 1997-present
Organizing Committee, National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science, 1993-1995
Chair, George Gamow Memorial Lecture Series, 2003-present
Nominating Committee APS GPMFC, 2000-2002
Haiyan Gao
Positions and Education:
Professor of Physics, Duke University, 2008-present
Associate Prof., Duke Univ., 2002-08
Associate Prof., MIT 2002-2004
Asst. Prof., MIT, 1997-2002
Asst. Physicist., Argonne National Laboratory, 1996-7
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1994-96
Ph.D., Caltech, 1994
B.S. Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 1988
Main Research Interests:
Test of fundamental symmteries in the search for a permanent neutron electric dipole moment
Study of the nucleon spin, and electromagnetic structure using polarized electron scattering and polarized Compton scattering
Investigation of the transition region between nucleon-mesonic degrees of freedom and the quark-gluon degrees of freedom of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) by the study of exclusive processes
QCD exotic particle search
Development of polarized gas targets using spin-exchange optical pumping technique
Other Activities/Awards:
APS Fellow (DNP), 2007
Overseas Outstanding Young Scholar Collaborative Award, National Science Foundation of China, 2005
Outstanding Junior Faculty Investigator Award in Nuclear Physics, the U.S. DOE, 2000
National Advisory Committee, Institute of Nuclear Theory, University of Washington (2005 - 2007)
Co-Chair, the 5th International Workshop on Chiral Dynamics (2006)
Co-Chair, Workshop on Soft Photons and Light Nuclei, Institute for Nuclear Theory, University of Washington, June 16-20, 2008
International Advisory Committee, International Spin Physics Symposia (2007-2010)
APS POPA member (2007-2009)
APS DNP program committee (2004-2005)
APS DNP dissertation award committee (2003-2004)
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Tom Gentile
Positions and Education:
Physicist, National Institute of Standards and Technology (1993-present)
Research Fellow, California Institute of Technology (1990-1993)
Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1989
B.S., State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1979
Main Research Interests:
Development and application of polarized 3He-based neutron spin filters to materials science and fundamental neutron physics
Precision measurements of neutron beta-decay
Precision neutron polarimetry
Other Activities/Awards:
American Physical Society member (DAMOP,DLS,DNP,FIAP,FPS,GPMFC,SESAPS)
David Kawall
Positions and Education:
Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts at Amherst (2005-Present)
RIKEN Fellow, Brookhaven National Laboratory (2004-Present)
Associate Research Scientist, Yale University (1995-2004)
Ph.D., Stanford (1996)
Main Research Interests:
Tests of fundamental symmetries (time reversal, CPT)
Precision measurements of atomic and molecular structure
Precision measurements of fundamental constants
Measurements of the spin structure of the proton
Other Activities/Awards:
Member of APS (DAMOP, DNP), RIKEN Fellow (2004-Present)
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Zheng-Tian Lu
Positions and Education:
Senior Scientist, Argonne National Lab, 2007 - present
Professor (part-time), Univ of Chicago, 2004 - present
Scientist, Argonne, 2000 - 2007
Assistant Scientist, Argonne, 1997 - 2000
Postdoc, JILA, Univ of Colorado, 1994 - 1997
Ph. D., Univ of California, Berkeley, 1994
M. Sc., Univ of Chicago, 1991
B. Sc., Univ of Sci & Tech of China, 1987
Main Research Interests:
Low-energy search for physics beyond the Standard Model:
Searching for an electric dipole moment of 225Ra atoms.
Atom Trap Trace Analysis: a new method for isotope analyses at the parts-per-trillion level: Perfecting this method for radiokrypton dating in Earth science studies.
Laser spectroscopy of exotic atoms: Measured nuclear charge radii of 6He and 8He.