Call for FRIB Theory Alliance Bridge Partner - Deadline March 15th, 2024

The FRIB Theory Alliance's (FRIB-TA) Bridge Program is one of several FRIB-TA initiatives that foster advancements in theory associated with the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams. The Bridge Program aims to enhance opportunities for hiring faculty at universities and staff at national laboratories who conduct theoretical research in low-energy nuclear physics, nuclear astrophysics, and quantum many-body theory that is relevant to FRIB's scientific program.

Each bridge position will support a new faculty member at a university or a new staff member at a national laboratory through a 50% cost-share with the host institution for up to six years. For this round of the program we seek proposals for bridge hires where the search would be run in Academic Year 2024-5, with a view to having the new faculty or staff member in the position in Fall 2025.

The FRIB-TA invites all departments at universities and national laboratories that participate in FRIB-TA science (see fribtheoryalliance.org) and are interested in partnering with the FRIB-TA through the Bridge Program to submit a proposal. Further details and guidance in preparing the proposals are available at http://fribtheoryalliance.org/content/Resources/procedures.php. For clarifications, please contact the FRIB-TA managing director Scott Bogner (bogner@frib.msu.edu).

The proposals should be sent electronically to the Chair of the FRIB-TA Bridge Committee, Jon Engel engelj@physics.unc.edu, cc to Gillian Olson olson@frib.msu.edu, by March 15, 2024.

We intend to make the selection no later than March 31, 2024. Provided funding remains available as expected, the results will be made public through the FRIB-TA web page and communicated to all applicants.

FRIB Theory Alliance Fellow job posting, application end date October 15th, 2023

The FRIB Theory Alliance is seeking outstanding candidates for an FRIB Theory Fellow. The fellow will be hosted by one of the Partner Institutions listed below. The successful candidate will conduct independent or collaborative research on theoretical nuclear structure, reactions, astrophysics, and/or fundamental symmetries relevant to the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB). The FRIB Theory Alliance is a consortium of universities and national laboratories actively engaged in theoretical research in FRIB science. FRIB is a new national user facility for nuclear science, funded by the DOE Office of Science and operated by Michigan State University.

The FRIB Theory Fellowship is a two-year position with the possibility of renewal for a maximum of five years. The initial stipend is $90k and this position has an annual travel budget of up to $5k. Additional funds will be provided for travel to FRIB. The FRIB Theory Fellow will be an employee of Michigan State University stationed at either Argonne National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, or the University of Notre Dame. The selection of the host institution will be made through negotiations with the successful candidate and the partner institutions. The successful candidate must demonstrate great promise for high achievement in FRIB science. Past fellows have a track record of moving directly into open faculty or permanent staff positions.

In their application materials, applicants should communicate their preferences with regards to specific hosting institutions. Hosting institutions and host contact information are:

Argonne National Laboratory: Alessandro Lovato (lovato@alcf.anl.gov)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Thomas Papenbrock (tpapenbr@utk.edu)
University of Notre Dame: S. Ragnar Stroberg (sstrobe2@nd.edu)

Please apply at Academic Jobs Online. The application deadline is October 15th, 2023. Three reference letters are also due by this date. If you have any questions, please contact Calvin Johnson (cjohnson@sdsu.edu).

MSU is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer. MSU is committed to achieving excellence through cultural diversity. The university actively encourages applications and/or nominations of women, persons of color, veterans and persons with disabilities.

Announcement of the recipients of the 2023 FRIB Achievement Award for Early Career Researchers

The FRIB Users Organization Executive Committee and FRIB Theory Alliance Executive Board are pleased to announce the winners of the 2023 FRIB Achievement Award for Early Career Researchers.

The 2023 recipient for the Experimental Award is Dr. Katharina Domnanich, Michigan State University, for her path-breaking work on Isotope Harvesting at FRIB.

The 2023 Theory Award recipient is Dr. Kyle Godbey, Michigan State University, for his innovative work on the dynamics of heavy nuclei.

The FRIB Achievement Award for Early Career Researchers was established to recognize outstanding original contributions to the field of nuclear physics through work at or relating to FRIB, performed by scientists early in their careers. The recipients will present their work during the plenary session at the Low Energy Community Meeting, and receive a stipend to support their participation.

Announcement of FRIB theory fellows for 2023

The FRIB Theory Alliance conducted a search for two new FRIB theory fellows in the Fall of 2022. The search committee received excellent applications and selected a shortlist of five. The interviews took place in-person in December 2022. Following the recommendation of the search committee Linda Hlophe and Grigor Sargsyan were selected as the two new FRIB theory fellows. Linda’s research is focused on reaction theory and development of Faddeev based methods to study three-body problems with an exact treatment of Coulomb interactions to advance reactions relevant for FRIB. Griogor’s research plan includes studies of electroweak processes within the symmetry-adapted No-Core Shell Model, developments of ab-initio optical potentials, and studies of charge exchange reactions relevant to the FRIB program. Linda will be hosted by Los Alamos National Laboratory and Grigor Sargsyan will be hosted by FRIB/Michigan State University. Please join the FRIB-TA in congratulating Linda and Grigor and wishing them much success!

FRIB Theory Alliance Bridge Faculty Member Earns NSF Career Award

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

U.S. Department of Energy designates FRIB as DOE Office of Science user facility

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, The (Hidden) Shades of Physics - Perspectives of being a Black Physicist

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

FRIB Theory Alliance EUSTIPEN Program
EUSTIPEN Mission: The Europe-U.S. Theory Institute for Physics with Exotic Nuclei (EUSTIPEN) has been established in order to facilitate collaborations between U.S.-based and Europe-based scientists whose main research thrust is in the area of the physics of nuclei. U.S. participation in EUSTIPEN is in the form of travel grants and subsistence grants to ECT* in Trento to those individuals who are interested in collaborating with European scientists. EUSTIPEN’s purview is in the area of physics of or with exotic nuclei, including nuclear structure and reaction theory, nuclear astrophysics, and tests of the standard model using exotic nuclei. Funding for EUSTIPEN is being provided through the FRIB Theory Alliance by the Office of Nuclear Physics of the U. S. Department of Energy.

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.

FRIB theory alliance bridge position at OU

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!

FRIB-TA Bridge Faculty member Maria Piarulli is a winner of a 2021 DOE-SC Early Career Award

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 theory alliance bridge position at FSU
Dr. Kevin Fossez, an FRIB theory fellow since 2019 at ANL, has accepted a tenure-track faculty position in the Physics department of Florida State University. His research is on the boundaries of nuclear structure and nuclear reactions, and his interests overlap strongly with the FSU experimental program. Congratulations Kevin!
Our mission

Foster advancements in theory related to diverse areas of FRIB science

"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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