NEWPORT NEWS, VA. - Research that will cast a new spin on particles inside the atomic nucleus has earned a researcher based at Temple University the first-ever JSA Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.
Brad Sawatzky, a Canadian who earned bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Saskatchewan and a Ph.D. at the University of Virginia, will spend the fellowship's $10,000 research grant to purchase and assemble components of a flash-ADC-based data acquisition system. This cutting-edge electronics system, which is still in development, may allow researchers to record five times more data than they can currently capture.
Sawatzky plans to test the system in the upcoming Spin Asymmetries on the Nucleon Experiment that is scheduled to run in Jefferson Lab's Experimental Hall C and the d2n experiment scheduled for Experimental Hall A. Both experiments aim to exploit a property of protons and neutrons, their spin, to determine how the constituent quarks and gluons are distributed inside. To do that, Sawatzky and his colleagues will control the orientation of the spin of both the electrons used to probe the protons and neutrons and the spin of the protons and neutrons themselves.
The JSA Postdoctoral Research Fellowship honors nuclear physics postdocs who have a record of accomplishment in physics and whose planned research will have a high impact on the Jefferson Lab physics program. The Fellow is expected to be a future leader in the Jefferson Lab research fields. Fellows receive a $10,000 research grant for Jefferson Lab-related research. The fellowship was initiated by representatives of the roughly 1,200 scientists who conduct research at Jefferson Lab, the Users Group Board of Directors.
"The Users Group Board was very happy this year to work on a new program sponsored by Jefferson Science Associates, the laboratory's management contractor, which allows us to recognize and reward our finest postdocs," said Ron Gilman, board chairman and a professor at Rutgers University.
"We had a number of excellent fellowship candidates, which made the process of choosing the winner both more difficult and longer than I expected. Brad Sawatzky's research proposal was chosen because he has been outstanding in all aspects of experimental physics."
"I really enjoy working with the great group of people here at JLab, and I try hard to support the collaboration and develop the physics. It's just very nice to have that effort be recognized," Sawatzky said of winning the inaugural fellowship.
Contact: Kandice Carter 757-269-7263