NEWPORT NEWS, VA. – Not many people have designed an entirely new detector system for use in high-precision physics experiments, but Zhihong Ye, a research associate at Duke University, can add his name to that list.
In recognition of his work and to support further development of his prototype detector system, Ye was named recipient of the 2014 Jefferson Science Associates Postdoctoral Research Grant during an award presentation at the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility on June 3.
The grant of $11,000 was presented during Jefferson Lab’s annual Users Group meeting held June 2-4. Ye’s proposal was selected for the award by the Jefferson Lab Users Group Board of Directors, the governing body that represents the more than 1,200 scientists who use Jefferson Lab facilities to conduct fundamental nuclear physics research.
According to Ye, his prototype scintillating fiber tracker detector is designed to greatly benefit the measurement of the proton charge radius, adding to the technical benefits of this important measurement over previous extractions from electron scattering. He adds that if this prototype test project proves successful, a full-size detector could be built and could be used to support a range of fundamental nuclear physics experiments at Jefferson Lab.
Ye completed his undergraduate degree in theoretical physics at the Lanzhou University in Gansu, China, and his Ph.D. at the University of Virginia. Since November 2013, he has been working on the Proton Charge Radius (PRAD) Experiment that is planned to run at Jefferson Lab.
"This year’s entries included both novel and ambitious research plans, all of which were very well thought out. The committee found them extremely informative and interesting,” said John Arrington, chair of the Jefferson Lab Users Group Board of Directors and group leader of the Medium Energy Physics Group at Argonne National Lab. “Zhihong’s proposed SciFi tracking detector will yield better isolation and reconstruction of e-p elastic scattering and thus a cleaner extraction of the form factors at very low Q^2.”
The JSA Postdoctoral Research Grant has been awarded annually since 2008 by the Users Group Board of Directors. In making the award, the board judged each applicant on his or her record of accomplishment in physics, proposed use of the research grant and the likelihood of further accomplishments in the type of research conducted at Jefferson Lab.
The research grant is one of the projects funded through the JSA Initiatives Fund program, established by Jefferson Science Associates to support programs, initiatives and activities that further the scientific outreach, and promote the science, education and technology missions of Jefferson Lab in ways that complement its basic and applied research focus. Initiatives Fund awards are for those projects that benefit the lab user community and that leverage commitments of others.
Contact: Debbie Magaldi, Jefferson Lab Public Affairs, 757-269-5102, magaldi@jlab.org
