As you have likely heard, the US Nuclear Physics community has begun to formulate a Long-Range Plan that will guide research in our field for the next 5-10 years. This Fall three different Town Meetings will take place as part of that process. The dates and locations are:
Hot & Cold QCD: 23-25 September, MIT, https://indico.mit.edu/event/538/
Nuclear Structure, Reactions, and Astrophysics: 14-16 November, ANL https://indico.phy.anl.gov/event/22/
Fundamental Symmetries, Neutrons, and Neutrinos: 13-15 December, UNC https://indico.phy.ornl.gov/e/FSNNTownHall
I encourage you to show up to (at least!) one of these meetings and to make your voice heard there. The Theory Alliance construes FRIB Science very broadly, so you should feel free to attend whichever of these meetings you think overlaps most strongly with your scientific interests. I anticipate that FRIB-TA members will be present at all three meetings.
The FRIB-TA has accomplished a lot during it’s life so far. In order to ensure continued flourishing of theory in general, and the FRIB-TA in particular, it is imperative that we articulate our contributions to nuclear-physics research clearly. I look forward to working with you as we participate in the Long-Range Planning process together.
This year’s annual Low Energy Community Meeting will take place in person at Argonne National Laboratory from 8-10 August. Visit the website at Low Energy Community Meeting 2022. On that website you will also find information about hotels, travel to Chicago, etc.
The FRIB-TA holds its annual meeting at the LECM. There we showcase the great science being done by our young colleagues—a talented group of Bridge Faculty and Theory Fellows. That will happen on the afternoon Tuesday, August 9. The program is as follows:
Tuesday, August 9, 12:50-2:20 pm CDT
FRIB-TA in WG Session 3: FRIB-TA Bridge Faculty, 20 minutes + 4 minutes for questions each
Business meeting, 15-20 minutes
Filomena Nunes, FRIB-TA Managing Director (MSU/FRIB) FRIB Theory Alliance and NP long range plan
2:20-2:40 pm CDT
Coffee break
2:40-4:10 pm CDT
FRIB-TA in WG Session 4, FRIB Theory Fellows, 18 minutes + 4 minutes for questions each
This FRIB-TA annual meeting will be followed by a late-afternoon plenary session, with further plenary sessions on Wednesday, August 10. Particular highlights will be the presentation of the FRIB Early Achievement Award to Amy Lovell (LANL), and Director Elect Saori Pastore’s plenary talk on FRIB-TA activities & science. See https://indico.frib.msu.edu/event/53/page/529-program for full information on the plenary talks and the other Working Groups.
The LECM will also provide an opportunity for FRIB-TA members to have our first in-person discussion about the Long-Range Plan charge that was delivered to NSAC on Wednesday, https://science.osti.gov/-/media/np/nsac/pdf/202207/NSAC_LRP-2022-Charge_Letter_AAB37-Signed.pdf
The FRIB Theory Fellow Program is an important component of the FRIB TA. FRIB Theory Fellows are highly qualified individuals with exceptional potential. They are expected to develop a high-caliber research effort relevant to rare-isotope science that demonstrates independence of action beyond that of a typical post-doc. The initial appointment is for two years; it can be extended up to a total of five years.
Currently there are five theory fellows (see https://fribtheoryalliance.org/content/fribta_affiliates.php?title=Supported%20scientists)) of which two will be moving onto permanent positions. This year's FRIB Theory Fellow Search Committee will seek two new fellow candidates to start Summer 2023. One of the fellows hired in this search will be sited at FRIB/MSU. The committee is soliciting Partner Institutions interested in hosting a FRIB Theory Fellow. If you are interested in partnering with the FRIB-TA on the fellow program, please review: National FRIB Theory Fellow program and communicate your interest to Saori Pastore (saori@wustl.edu, saori.pastore@gmail.com), chair of the Search Committee, as soon as possible.
The proposed time-line for the search is:
August 5: Deadline to identify Partner Institutions
August 15: Advertise FRIB Theory Fellow Position
October 10: Application Deadline
December 5 - 9: Interview FRIB Theory Fellow candidates
Select FRIB Theory Fellow(s) by December 14
Potential Partner Institutions need to identify a senior researcher who will act as the local host for the Fellow. The Partner Institutions and the local hosts will be identified in the fellow position advertisement. Each Partner Institution will have a representative on the Search Committee during the interview process (most often the local host). These extra members of the search committee will participate in the selection of the shortlist and in all interviews. After the interviews, the representatives of the Partner Institutions on the search committee can give their assessment of each candidate but will not participate in the final selection of the Fellow. If any of the permanent members of the Search Committee represent a Partner Institution, they will be replaced by other members of the FRIB-TA in order to provide five voting members of the Search Committee. For more information please consult the National FRIB Theory Fellow program.
The FRIB Theory Fellow will be an MSU employee and the Partner Institution will execute a sub-recipient agreement with MSU. The funding required from a partner university to MSU is approximately $70,000/year, pending final negotiations. Further questions about these arrangements may be directed to Saori Pastore or to Filomena Nunes (nunes@frib.msu.edu).
The FRIB Theory Alliance conducted a search for two new FRIB theory fellows in the Fall of 2021. The search committee received excellent applications and selected a shortlist of five. The interviews took place in-person in December 2021. Following the recommendation of the search committee Anna McCoy and Chien-Yeah Seng were selected as the two new FRIB theory fellows. Anna research plan is to explore symmetries in nuclei to characterize their properties at a more fundamental level. Chien-Yeah research plan is to use nuclear processes for searches of physics beyond the standard model. Anna will be hosted by Washington University in St. Louis and Chien-Yeah will be hosted by University of Washington. Please join the FRIB-TA in congratulating Anna and Chien-Yeah and wishing them a successful stay at WashU and UW.
For more details on Fellows see Supported scientists.
Sebastian König, an assistant professor of physics at North Carolina State University (NC State) and FRIB Theory Alliance (FRIB-TA) bridge faculty member, has received a Faculty Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The award, also known as the NSF CAREER award, is one of the highest awards the foundation bestows upon young faculty in the sciences. https://frib.msu.edu/news/2021/nsf-career.html
The U.S. Department of Energy has designated the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams at
Michigan State University as an Office of Science user facility. U.S. Secretary of
Energy Dan Brouillette announced the designation at a special ceremony held
outdoors at MSU, under a tent adjacent to FRIB.
The university is establishing FRIB under a cooperative agreement with the
DOE Office of Science, supporting the mission of the Office of Nuclear Physics.
FRIB will enable scientists to make discoveries about the properties of rare isotopes
(short-lived nuclei not normally found on Earth), nuclear astrophysics, fundamental
interactions and applications for society, including in medicine, homeland security
and industry. More than 1,400 scientific users are poised to conduct research at FRIB
when user operation commences in early 2022.
For more information visit MSU Today
Paul Gueye, Associate Professor of Physics at Michigan State University National Superconduction Cyclotron Laboratory shares The (Hidden) Shades of Physics - Perspectives of being a Black Physicist
If you have an interest in forging new or continuing collaborations with European colleagues, this travel grant is for you. Students and postdocs are encouraged to apply.
For additional information regarding EUSTIPEN click here.
Dr Christian Drischler, an FRIB theory fellow since 2020 at MSU, has accepted a tenure-track faculty position in the Physics Department of Ohio University, under the FRIB-TA bridge program.
Christian’s research includes applications of chiral effective theory and many-body perturbation theory to nuclear matter equation of state and neutron stars, as well as Bayesian methods and emulators for nuclear scattering and reactions. Congratulations Christian!
Five scientists who will perform research at FRIB have received 2021 U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC) Early Career Research Program. https://frib.msu.edu/news/2021/early-career-awards-2021.html
"FRIB is a discovery machine. It will enable researchers to investigate what holds together the atomic nuclei were made of and how those elements were created.To understand that, scientists study rare isotopes."
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