Bolek Wyslouch

Physics at the energy, intensity, temperature and space frontiers: Laboratory for Nuclear Science at MIT

Bolek Wyslouch

Laboratory for Nuclear Science, MIT

Friday, May 19, 2017

3:00pm

NW17-218

PSFC Seminars

Abstract: Members of LNS are experimental and theoretical particle and nuclear physicists. We study the fundamental properties of matter: searching for new particles and new phenomena, and studying in extreme detail the properties of the Standard Model of particles and forces. We also study properties of nuclear matter in extreme conditions and the influence of particle properties on astrophysical phenomena. We use a wide variety of tools: formal particle theory, particle phenomenology, advanced data analysis techniques and a large variety of particle detectors. LNS members are active at accelerator laboratories around the world, using proton and ion beams at the highest energies to search for new particles and study high temperature nuclear plasmas; high intensity beams for neutrino studies; and electron beams to study the structure of protons and nuclei. Our detectors are underground waiting to detect extremely rare processes, and on the International Space Station to study cosmic rays. In this talk I will present some of the science questions that we are trying to answer and some recent experimental results.

Bio: After completing his undergraduate work in Physics at the University of Warsaw in 1981, Professor Wyslouch began his association with MIT, first as a doctoral student, where he earned a Ph.D. in Physics in 1987. In the same year, he became a postdoctoral fellow at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. From 1990, he was a Research Associate with MIT's Laboratory for Nuclear Science (LNS), stationed at CERN, before being named an Assistant Professor in 1991. Professor Wyslouch was promoted to Associate Professor without tenure in 1997 and Associate Professor with tenure in July 1998. In July 2002, he was promoted to full Professor. He is currently serving as Director of the Laboratory for Nuclear Science as of 2015.