Experimental Particle Physics
Interim President of the University of Michigan | President of the American Physical Society
Homer Alfred Neal grew up in segregated Franklin, Kentucky in the 1950’s. As a teen he was interested in ham radio and became close friends with another ham radio operator in his town, who was white. They had to end their relationship because of intense pressure from town leaders.
Prof. Neal’s area of research was experimental particle physics. He was part of the DØ Collaboration at Fermilab that discovered the top quark in 1995. From 2000 to 2015 he was director of the University of Michigan team that collaborated on the ATLAS experiment, which was one of the two CERN experiments that together discovered the Higgs boson in 2012.
Listen to him describe The History of Spin at Michigan.
Homer Neal was the 2013 recipient of the APS Edward A. Bouchet Award “for his significant contributions to experimental high energy physics, for his important role in formulating governmental science policy, for his service as a university administrator at several universities, and for his advocacy of diversity and educational opportunity at all levels.”
PHY 493 – Particle Physics
References
- Homer Neal, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_Neal
- Homer Neal, 1942-2018, APS News, https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/updates/homer.cfm
- DØ Experiment, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%98_experiment
- 2016 APS President – Homer Neal, APS News, https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201602/homer-neal.cfm
Photo 1: Amrican Physical Society
Photo 2: The DØ detector, with collaboration members in the foreground, at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in 2001 (www-d0.fnal.gov)