Two Years in a Row: Un Ki Yang (Rochester Physics PhD 2001) Selected to Receive the URA/Fermilab Award for Best Ph.D. Thesis Done at Fermilab
Un Ki Yang (UR Ph.D. 2001, photograph on the left) was awarded the 2002 Universities Research Association (URA) thesis prize (URA Thesis Award)
for the best Ph.D. thesis done on work at Fermilab in 2001. The award was presented by Fred Bernthal, President of the URA, at the Fermilab User's Meeting June 10, 2002. A short biography of Yang is appended to the end of this article. Yang's talk at the user meeting is available in the on-line proceedings of the 2002 Fermilab User's meeting.
This is the second year in a row that a Rochester student won the URA/Fermilab Thesis award. Last year in 2001, it was won by Michael Fitch (UR PhD 2000, photograph on the right) who did his Ph.D. work with Professor Adrian Melissinos see: Dept News Article).
Yang's award is the 5th award since the award was instituted at Fermilab five years ago. The following is a list of students who have won this award in the past five years.
Ian Adam, Columbia (Thesis submitted in 1997 on Dzero Experiment)
Peter Maksimovic,MIT (Thesis submitted in 1998 on CDF Experiment)
Peter Shawhan, Chicago (Thesis submitted in 1999 on KTeV Kaon Experiment)
Michael Fitch, Rochester (Thesis submitted in 2000 on Acccelerator Experiment, advisor Adrian Melissinos)
Un Ki Yang, Rochester (Thesis submitted in 2001 on CCFR/NuTeV Neutrino Experiment, advisor Arie Bodek)
Universities Research Association, Inc. (URA), a consortium of 89 research universities in the U.S. and abroad, operates Fermilab under a contract with the Department of Energy.
Among the the 89 university group who do experiments at Fermilab, there are about 50 PhD Theses completed each year (e.g 54 so far in 2001-2002, 51 in 2000-2001, 56 in 99-00, 43 in 98-99, 58 in 97-98, 59 in 96-97). The lowest number of nominations in one year was 6 and the the highest number of nominations was 14. In 1998 for example (see article in the July 31, 1998 issue of Fermi News) 14 of the 58 PhD Theses completed in 1997 were nominated for the single URA Award (which was won that year by Ian Adams from Columbia University).
The department and the Rochester High Energy Physics group are honored that Rochester PhD Theses won the URA Thesis award for two years in a row in 2001 and 2002.
Dr. Un Ki Yang received his Ph.D. in experimental particle physics from the University of Rochester in 2001. His research work, performed under the supervision of Professor Arie Bodek, was done on the Columbia-Chicago-Fermilab-Rochester (CCFR/NuTeV) neutrino scattering experiment at the Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois. Yang's PhD thesis is titled "A Measurement of Differential Cross-Sections in Charged-Current Neutrino Interactions on Iron and a Global Structure Function Analysis".
This is the third award that U.K. Yang has received on his work as a graduate student. In 2001 he won the University of Rochester Lobkowicz Prize for best PhD work in Particle Physics. He also won in 2001 Honorable Mention as an "Outstanding Young Researcher" award from the American Korean Physics Association (see Dept News Article)
Yang's Ph.D. work deals with studies of the inner structure of protons and neutrons. Protons and neutrons are known to be composed of more fundamental particles called Quarks and Gluons. The Gluons are the force particles that confine the quarks inside the proton. The theory of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) describes the strong nuclear force between the quarks which are the constituents not only of protons and neutrons, but also of other nuclear particles such as mesons and baryons.
Yang has contributed to the measurement of the momentum (i.e. velocity) distributions of the quarks inside the proton. These distributions, commonly referred to as Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs), are measured in experiments which scatter high energy particles such as electrons, muons and neutrinos from targets composed of protons and neutrons . Yang*s work has led to a great improvement in our knowledge of the quark distributions inside protons and neutrons, and to a better experimental tests of the prediction of the theory of Quantum Choromodynamics (QCD).
In the CCFR/NuTeV experiment at Fermilab, beams of very high energy mesons are produced in the collisions of a high energy beam of protons on an aluminum target. High intensity beams of high energy neutrinos and antineutrinos are produced in a long pipe in which the mesons are allowed to decay. Neutrino interactions with nucleons were investigated in a 600 ton iron-scintillator target. Yang's Ph.D. research focussed on the analysis of high energy neutrino events in the CCFR/NuTeV experiment, combined with additional data from electron and muon scattering experiments to measure the distributions of quarks inside protons and neutrons.
Following his Ph.D., Yang took a postdoctoral position with CDF group at the University of Chicago. For additional details, contact Un Ki Yang at ukyang@fnal.gov or Arie Bodek at bodek@pas.rochester.edu.
See Also University of Rochester Press Release: (Fermilab Awards 'Best Thesis' to Physics Grads Two Years in a Row ),
Last year's winner Rochester student Michael Fitch wrote a thesis, titled "Electro-Optic Sampling of Transient Electric Fields from Charged Particle Beams". He was advised by Prof. Adrian C. Melissinos. In Fitch's thesis, a new accelerator beam position measurement technique was developed. The new technique, developed for future linear colliders, may also be useful in other accelerators in which non-intercepting diagnostics are needed. During his stay at Fermilab, Fitch was supported by the Rochester Department of Energy (DOE) High Energy Physics grant and a Fermilab Beams Division Graduate Fellowship. Following his Ph.D., Fitch took a one year postdoctoral position with Professor Ian Walmsley's group at the Institure of Optics at the University of Rochester. (A photograph of Fitch receiving the award from URA President Fred Bernthal at the June 2001 Users's meeting at Fermilab is shown on the right).
The Fermilab/URA thesis awards program is described at:Fermilab Web Site and at: Fermilab User' Organization Web Site (details at end of this article).
Fermilab/URA Thesis Awards Program
Description: Fermilab and Universities Research Association (URA) Thesis Award honors the most outstanding thesis written on research conducted at Fermilab or in collaboration with Fermilab scientists. The award is presented each year by the President of URA at the annual Users' Meeting. Theses submitted during the previous calendar year (ending December 31) are eligible for the award. Selections are made by a committee, appointed by the Fermilab Director, and they are judged on clarity of presentation, originality, and physics content. To qualify the thesis must have been submitted to a URA member institution as partial fulfillment of the Ph.D. requirements, and it must have been submitted in electronic form to the Fermilab Publications Office in accordance with Fermilab policy.
The recipient of the award receives a certificate of recognition and a check for $3000. In addition, the recipient's name and the year of the award is engraved on a plaque containing the names of all past recipients, which resides permanently on the second floor of Wilson Hall.
Nominations should include a letter supporting the merits of the thesis being nominated.
Contact: Roger L. Dixon Fermilab, MS122, P.O. Box 500, Batavia, Il 60510 (630) 840-2576, roger@fnal.gov
Application Deadline: March 31 -------------------------------------------------------
Short Biography of Un Ki Yang
Un Ki Yang was born in Naju, Korea on November 10, 1968. He graduated from Korea University at Seoul with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1990. He received a Master of Science degree from Korea University in 1992. He came to the University of Rochester in the fall of 1992 to continue his studies in the field of elementary particle physics. He joined the CCFR/NuTeV neutrino experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory where he conducted his Ph.D. thesis research under the supervision of Prof. Arie Bodek. In May 1994, he received his Masters of Arts degree from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester. He was on leave of absence from Sep. 1996 to Dec. 1997 for military service duty in Korea. Following his PhD, Yang has accepted a postdoctoral position at the University of Chicago to work on the CDF experiment at Fermilab.
Short Biography of Michael James Fitch
Michael James Fitch was born in Frederick, Maryland, USA, on June 10, 1970. He was the salutatorian of Susquehanna Township High School (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) in 1988, and was awarded a National Merit Scholarship. He studied at Princeton University and received the degree Artium Baccalaurei in Physics cum laude in 1992. Following a year at Duke University, he enrolled in graduate school in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester in 1993. He was supported in part by a fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education during his first two years of study. He received the Master of Arts degree in 1995. Under the supervision of Prof. Adrian C. Melissinos, he began research at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in 1995. He was supported by a Fermilab Beams Division Graduate Fellowship from 1996 to 2000. His fellowship mentors were Patrick L. Colestock and Helen T. Edwards. After receiving his PhD from , he took a postdoctoral position at the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester.
Article submitted by:
Arie Bodek
5/20/02; 12:56:41 PM