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FELLOWSHIPS AIM TO STIMULATE
YOUNG THEORETICAL PHYSICISTS: LHC Theory Initiative Awards First-Ever Grants
Baltimore, MD, 9 April 2007: The
Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
Theory Initiative, a U.S.-based consortium of theoretical physicists aiming
to stimulate and cultivate new young talent in anticipation of the opening of
the Large Hadron Collider later this year, announces its 2007 LHC Theory
Graduate Fellowship Awards.
Administered by The Johns Hopkins University and funded by the National Science
Foundation, the $40,000 awards -- being distributed for the first time this year
-- will provide selected young theorists with funds to underwrite the costs of
their research, including travel and computing needs.
Recipients of the 2007 LHC Theory Initiative Graduate Fellowship Awards are
Randall Kelly (University of California, San Diego) and Jonathan Walsh
(University of Washington). Their research interests include calculations of
higher-order corrections both within and beyond the Standard Model, as well as
the development of new, improved, simulation tools to confront with data
theoretical models.
In addition, LHC Theory Initiative Travel Awards, which provide $3,000 for LHC-related
travel, were presented to Dai De Chang (Case Western Reserve University), Wei
Gong (University of Oregon), David Khron (Princeton University) and Keith
Rehermann (Johns Hopkins University).
All six winners are graduate students selected through a national competition.
The chair of the selection committee was Fred Olness from Southern Methodist
University.
"The goal of these fellowships and awards is to stimulate the work of
theoretical physicists who will help interpret the treasure trove of data that
will emerge from the Large Hadron Collider," said Jonathan Bagger, a member of
the LHC Theory Initiative and chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy
at Johns Hopkins. "Our initiative will help the high-energy physics community
take full advantage of the LHC."
The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European laboratory for particle physics
in Geneva, Switzerland, is expected to begin operation late this year. With its
unprecedented energy and luminosity, the LHC promises to revolutionize particle
physics and our understanding of the universe. It is expected to create new
forms of matter as scientists search for the elusive Higgs boson and a host of
new particles, as well as help answer some of the most fundamental questions of
physics.
"How do particles acquire mass? Can dark matter be created in a laboratory
environment? Do new symmetries of nature link matter, energy, space and time?
How did matter behave a fraction of a second after the Big Bang? Those are just
some of the questions that we believe will be answered through the LHC," says
LHC Theory Initiative member Lynne Orr of the University of Rochester. "The
ultimate goal of particle physics is to identify the fundamental principles that
govern matter, energy, space and time. The LHC will allow us to explore this new
terrain."
Bagger and Orr are joined as principal investigators on the LHC Theory
Initiative by R. Sekhar Chivukula of Michigan State University and Ulrich Baur
of the State University of New York at Buffalo.
"In the coming years, we will not only continue to award the Graduate Fellowship
and Travel Awards, but will also award $150,000 grants to postdoctoral fellows,"
Baur said. "The money will allow these young researchers to pursue their
research and to build a network of LHC-related theorists. We want to create a
strong community of young physicists."
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