Joseph M. Izen, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator, Elementary Particle Physics, a Department of Energy grant supporting UT Dallas' High Energy Physics Group.
Education
The Cooper Union, B.S. Physics and Mathematics, Summa Cum Laude, June 2007
Harvard University, A.M. Physics, June 1978
Harvard University, Ph.D. Physics, June 1982
Ph.D. Advisor: Francis M. Pipkin
Postdoctoral Mentor: Sau Lan Wu, University of Wisconsin at Madison
Professional Affiliations
Member, American Physical Society, APS Division of Particles and Fields, ATLAS Collaboration, BaBar Collaboration
Overview
Dr. Izen is an high energy particle physics experimentalist exploring high-energy proton collisions produced at CERN's Large Hadron collider and electron-positron collisions at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) . He is Principal Investigator of a Department of Energy grant supporting the UT Dallas' High Energy Physics Group work on the ATLAS and BaBar experiments.
Research Interests
I study proton collisions produced at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which will shortly operate at the high energy frontier of elementary particle physics. The UT Dallas group collaborates on the ATLAS experiment which is searching for the higgs boson, dark matter, microblack holes, and whatever surprises await in collisions that reproduce conditions common during the first billionth of a second following the Big Bang. In addition to physics analysis, the UT Dallas ATLAS Group is responsible the optoheater system of the ATLAS pixel detector, and we operates an ATLAS GRID production computing site.
I also work on the BaBar experiment that has finished collecting data from the annihilation of electrons and positrons with the PEP-II storage ring at SLAC. I use a technique pioneered by the UT Dallas high energy group that selects annihilations with less than the nominal beam energy of 10.6 GeV because of initial state radiation. We discovered an unexpected structure, called the Y(4260), with a mass around 4.26 GeV/c2.
Before joining BaBar, Dr. Izen collaborated on the Cleo, Tasso, Aleph, Mark III, SLD, SDC, and BES experiments. He served as the US BES Spokesperson from 1996-1997.
Teaching
I chair the Physics Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and the Faculty Advisory Committee for MSET, the new math, science, and engineering teaching building, currently under construction, that is targeted for completion in Fall, 2010. I serve on UT Dallas' Classroom Committee, and I am faculty advisor to Women in Physics. Undergraduate courses I have taught at UT Dallas include Quantum Mechanics I, Mechanics and Honors Physics I, Contemporary Physics, and Optics. Graduate-level course I have taught include Quantum Mechanics I, Elementary Particle Physics and Accelerators.
Special Interests
I play clawhammer banjo for Squirrelheads in Gravy, an Appalachian string band that plays for contradances in the North Texas region. If I'm not playing for a contradance, you're likely to find me on the dance floor, which is how I met my wife Neia. Before we were married, Neia and I co-hosted a weekly folk music radio program.
I am faculty adviser to the UT Dallas Comet Hockey Club, and play defense for the UT Dallas hockey team in the Southwest Collegiate Hockey League. During academic breaks, I often head for the wilderness where I love to backpack and cross-country ski. In addition, I amuse myself by tracing my family's roots in Eastern Europe.
Publications:
Selected Publications:
- Observation of a Broad Structure in the π+ π– J/ψ Mass Spectrum Around 4.26 GeV/c2. BABAR Collaboration (B. Aubert et al.). BABAR-PUB-05-29, SLAC-PUB-11320, hep-ex/0506081, Jun 2005. Accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.Lett
- Observation of CP Violation in the Meson System.
(BABAR Collaboration) B. Aubert, et al., Physical Review Letters, 87, 091801 (2001). - Measurement of the Total Cross Section for Hadronic Production By Annihilation at Energies Between 2.6 GeV – 5.0 GeV.
(BES Collaboration) J.Z. Bai, et al., Physical Review Letters, 84, 594 (2000). - Measurement of the Branching Fractions for and and Determination of |Vcd/Vcs|2.
(Mark III Collaboration) J. Adler, et al., Physical Review Letters 62, 1821 (1989). - Ion Trapping Properties of a Synchronously Gated Time Projection Chamber.
S.R. Amendolia, et al., Nuclear Instruments and Methods A239, 192 (1985). - Experimental Test of the Flavor Independence of the Quark - Gluon Coupling Constant.
(Tasso Collaboration) M. Althoff, et al., Physics Letters 138B, 317 (1984).
- Updated: September 12, 2012
