Nathan Jurik G’16 (Photo by Gordon Watts)
An alumnus of the (A&S) is being recognized by the (APS).
, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Oxford (U.K.), is the 2018 recipient of the . One of APS鈥� highest honors, the award acknowledges Jurik鈥檚 original work with a rare class of subatomic particles called pentaquarks. Such research became the basis for his Ph.D. thesis in the Department of Physics in A&S.
Each year, APS grants 15 dissertation awards. Jurik鈥檚 comes with a $1,500 prize; a certificate; and a travel reimbursement up to $1,000 to attend the 2018 APS April Meeting in Columbus, Ohio, where he is invited to speak.
鈥淭his award is a huge honor for Nathan, our and the College of Arts and Sciences,鈥� says Alan Middleton, professor and chair of physics, as well as associate dean of research and scholarship in A&S. 鈥淣athan is an exceptional young scientist, with a promising career ahead of him. His doctoral thesis work reveals how fundamental particles of matter can join together in new ways.鈥�
Jurik was part of a team of A&S researchers鈥攊ncluding Professors Tomasz Skwarnicki and Sheldon Stone and then postdoc Liming Zhang, now a professor at Beijing鈥檚 Tsinghua University鈥攚ho made international headlines in 2015 with their discovery of two rare pentaquark states in the data of a Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment.
Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the LHCb experiment involves more than 800 researchers who study differences in matter and antimatter by focusing on the 鈥渂eauty quark,鈥� or 鈥渂 quark.鈥�
Sheldon Stone
Stone credits Jurik for being a driving force behind the project鈥檚 data analysis. 鈥淣athan鈥檚 energy was enormous,鈥� recalls Stone, a Distinguished Professor of Physics who oversees HEP. 鈥淒uring periods of stress throughout the rigorous collaboration analysis and paper-review process, he reacted immediately to all requests, and fully understood the implications what he was doing.鈥�
Following the 2015 discovery, Jurik gave a series of well-received talks at conferences and seminars. 鈥淣athan was an intellectual equal in all our discussions, often generating stimulating ideas, even though he was the most junior participant,鈥� Stone adds.
Skwarnicki, who was Jurik鈥檚 Ph.D. advisor, also is effusive in his praise. 鈥淭his is a great distinction, considering APS grants only one dissertation award a year in experimental particle physics,鈥� says Skwarnicki, a physics professor who, like his HEP colleagues, does most of his work at the CERN physics laboratory in Geneva. 鈥淚鈥檝e advised many Ph.D. students, but few have worked as hard as Nathan. He truly deserves this honor.鈥�
Tomasz Skwarnicki
Skwarnicki says that after pentaquarks were discovered, he and Jurik began approaching their data differently. 鈥淲e had fewer assumptions, since we had demonstrated that five-quark interactions were, in fact, present, as opposed to ordinary three-quark forces, which were responsible for the creation of ordinary nuclear matter,鈥� Skwarnicki says.
Their research prompted a spate of scientific articles, including one in 2016 by the LHCb鈥攖heir second on pentaquarks. Both LHCb pentaquark papers appeared in Physical Review Letters (PRL), where they were featured as 鈥淓ditor鈥檚 Suggestions,鈥� an honor given to only six articles per issue. PRL, which accepts less than a quarter of all articles submitted, is the most cited physics journal in the world.
鈥淪o far, the LHCb has published three articles based on Nathan鈥檚 work,鈥� says Skwarnicki, adding that Jurik鈥檚 first data analysis, involving a meson with two different heavy quarks, was published in 2014.
Guy Wilkinson, LHCb鈥檚 spokesperson, was traveling with Jurik in India at the time of award鈥檚 announcement. 鈥淚t is great news, indeed,鈥� says the Oxford physics professor. 鈥満诹喜淮蜢� has been a valued participant of LHCb for many years, well before LHC delivered its first collisions in 2009.鈥�
Jurik takes the attention in stride. 鈥淚 am extremely honored that my doctoral thesis was selected to receive this prize,鈥� he writes. 鈥淥f course, the work, itself, was enough of a reward, but this [award] certainly doesn鈥檛 hurt. I am fortunate to have my thesis commemorated like this, and am thankful to my colleagues at 黑料不打烊 for their support throughout my time there. They鈥檝e made this possible.鈥�
At 黑料不打烊, Jurik was an integral part of HEP鈥攁 group of 20 or so professors, research scientists and students who work on the LHCb experiment. Most of their research involves the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world鈥檚 biggest, most powerful particle accelerator, located in Geneva. LHC hurls beams of protons in opposing directions through miles of vacuum until they collide with one another. Such collisions produce precious b quarks about 1 percent of the time.
“We examine subatomic debris from these collisions to learn more about the building blocks of matter and the forces controlling them,” says Stone, whose HEP group, while relatively small, accounts for more than 20 percent of all LHCb peer-reviewed articles.
Currently, HEP is building a special detector called the Upstream Tracker. When complete in 2019, it will significantly increase the amount of data that LHC can process.
Jurik is not the only APS awardee with 黑料不打烊 ties. Lisa Manning, associate professor of physics, is the 2018 recipient of the Maria Geoppert Mayer Award, APS鈥� early-career award given to a woman physicist.
APS is a nonprofit organization that advances the knowledge of physics through research journals; scientific meetings; and education, outreach, advocacy and international activities.
