Marcucci Enjoys Challenge of Theoretical Physics
Interviews by James Schultz

Laura Marcucci grew up in the small Italian town of Lucca, roughly 12 miles north of Pisa. She expects to graduate from Old Dominion University this coming summer with a Ph.D. in theoretical nuclear physics.

I'm not really sure why I became interested in physics. It just somehow happened. I do remember that when I was helping around the house helping my mother carry groceries, for example I'd be calculating forces, energy, that kind of thing. Stupid things, really, but I thought about them.

Laura Marcucci taking a break from the computer and her latest batch of calculations

I started to play the piano when I was 12. By the time I was 16 or 17 the piano and physics were both very important. I chose physics, but I didn't give up the piano. I just decided to be a physicist who liked music rather than a musician who liked physics. I still play, even concerts sometimes, but it's getting harder to find the time to practice...

After I finished my undergraduate studies in Italy, I wanted to leave the small world where I grew up, to see different places. The United States was definitely the best place for graduate studies in theoretical nuclear physics. And in this country, Jefferson Lab is the place to be. Here they organize workshops and have speakers and you get to meet many people. Instead of your having to go elsewhere, people come here. You get to know them, they get to know you, and you can broaden your interests and be exposed to physics research different from your own. It helps.

I study the lightest nuclei, in particular helium3, helium4 and hydrogen3 (tritium). The approach I use views them as composed of three or four interacting neutrons and protons (nucleons). This approach, which basically ignores the presence of three quarks within each nucleon, is very simple and also very old. But theoretical models that describe the interactions among nucleons are now very accurate in predicting the experimental data. With this approach, I have studied electron scattering on nuclei of helium3 and hydrogen3. I've calculated the elastic form factors for a wide range of momentum transferred from the electron to the nucleus. I've also studied the reactions p+d-->helium3+photon and p+helium3-->helium4+positron+neutrino. This last process, in particular, takes place in the interior of the sun and plays a prominent role in our understanding of the very recent measurements of solar neutrinos by the immense underground liquid water detector in Japan called SuperKamiokande. Our goal in each of these calculations is to develop a theoretical framework which can both explain the existing data and predict results for experiments yet to be carried out.

The very refined models on which our approach is based are continuously tested and improved by calculating nuclear properties that can be or have been measured in research facilities like Jefferson Lab.

I've really found a lot of help in the Theory Group. You just knock at a door and someone is there to help you. It's great to have a problem and someone to help you figure it out. There's also a continuous exchange of ideas with other graduate students and post docs. And I really like having physics experiments going on close by. I'm calculating; they're measuring. Otherwise, it would be like living in an ivory tower.

It has struck me how few female physicists there are in the United States. At the graduate-student level, in Italy, it is about 20 percent female. Here it¹s probably 10 percent. I don't mind; it's OK. For me, gender is not an issue.

When I arrived, there was no graduate student association. There should be something here to help newly arrived foreign students with things like finding an apartment, establishing a credit history and so on. The biggest help I got was from my faculty advisor and his wife. They were great. But I think people are working on it, so maybe it will be better in the future.

Physics is not a nine-to-five job. You can't just stop thinking at a certain hour. Often, when everybody goes home, I¹m still here working. It¹s because theoretical nuclear physics is a lot of fun. I really like the calculations I¹m doing.

If I had to do it all over again, I¹d do it without thinking twice. Immediately. I admit I do miss Italy a little bit < the warmth and the friendships. But I¹ve made some good friends here, too.

My plan is simple: Keep going and find somebody to hire me. Right now I¹m applying for post docs [postdoctoral positions] back in Europe.

My job is the best hobby I could imagine.

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