Notre Dame Physics was well-represented at the DNP 2017, which is the fall meeting of the Division of Nuclear Physics of the American Physical Society. Many physics majors, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty members attended, as did multiple 2017 ND-REU participants from other universities. Prof. Anna Simon and Dr. Patrick O’Malley, postdoctoral research associate, acted as session chairs. Just a few of the attendees are pictured here.…

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As part of continued support for the JINA R-matrix code AZURE2, a workshop was held at the Institute of Modern Physics (Chinese Academy of Sciences) in Lanzhou, China from September 18^th to 22^nd. Dr. James deBoer presented lectures and tutorials that emphasized the practical use of the code.

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The goal of this Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant was to modify the low energy injection system of the FN tandem electrostatic accelerator of the Nuclear Science Laboratory (NSL) at the University of Notre Dame (ND) to provide higher mass resolution necessary for improved isotopic selectivity at isotopic masses beyond sulfur and chlorine. 

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CASPAR researchers Daniel Robertson and Michael Wiescher have been featured in the Autumn 2017 issue of the Notre Dame Magazine written by Dr. Kenneth Garcia '08 about his personal experience of going underground in the Homestake Mine of South Dakota where CASPAR is located. The online version of the article can be found here…

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The NSL faculty retreat for 2017 took place at Fernwood Botanical Garden in Niles, MI on August 26. The group discussed current issues and strategic short-term and long-range plans on scientific focuses and resources for the Nuclear Science Laboratory.…

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Michael Wiescher, the Freimann Professor of Nuclear Physics and the director of the Nuclear Science Laboratory, has been elected into the Academia Europaea, the Academy of Europe, for a lifetime of outstanding achievements.

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The Ph. D. thesis of Dr. James Matta, titled "Exotic Nuclear Excitations: The Transverse Wobbling Mode in ¹³⁵Pr" has been published as a book by the well-known science publisher Springer under the "Springer Theses" series. 

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Physicist Maxime Brodeur received a Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant from the National Science Foundation to conduct research on the Standard Model of physics at the University of Notre Dame’s Nuclear Science Laboratory.

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The Compact Accelerator System for Performing Astrophysical Research (CASPAR) is featured in the science section of WIRED magazine.

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The National Nuclear Security Administration's Office of International Nuclear Safeguards presented this year's Joule Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions made for transferring: ¹⁹F(α,n) Na Cross Section for Uranium Enrichment to international partners." The Versatile Array of Neutron Detectors at Low Energy, also known as VANDLE, array of plastic scintillators, developed with Stewardship Science Academic Alliances funds, was critical to the success of this project.

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The Compact Accelerator System for Performing Astrophysical Research (CASPAR) recently reached a huge milestone with the delivery of first beam to target. This marks a significant step in the creation and operation of the first U.S. deep underground accelerator laboratory.

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Michael Wiescher, Freimann Professor of Nuclear Physics and Dan Robertson, Research Assistant Professor, are leading the team from Notre Dame, working in collaboration with researchers from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and the Colorado School of Mines.

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Nuclear graduate students Samuel Henderson and Craig Reingold are the receipents of the 2017 Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award. This award was created in 1999 to recognize graduate student instructors and TAs who demonstrate commitment to exceptional teaching in lectures, seminars, labs, and across the academic profession.

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Legitimate and counterfeit currency played a significant role in the Revolutionary War – either as a justification to start it or as part of a strategy to win it. However, to understand the economics of this time period, it is critical to know how colonial and counterfeit currency was produced, distributed, and utilized.

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Three graduate students (Adam Clark, Austin Nelson, and Craig Reingold) of ISNAP participated in this year’s Notre Dame Day live broadcast on April 23rd to gain votes for the Graduate Physics Society (GPS). During the broadcast, the students of the GPS performed a physics demo in which they used a sledgehammer to smash a cinder block on the chest of the broadcast host and Notre Dame alumni Vic Lombardi. This is a classic physics demonstration that illustrates the concepts pressure, inertia, and the conservation of energy.…

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Physics graduate student Kevin Howard has been awarded a fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). This summer Mr. Howard will be working with Prof. Shinsuke Ota at the Center for Nuclear Study at the University of Tokyo, and Dr. Tomohiro Uesaka, a Chief Scientist at the Spin Isospin Laboratory at the RIKEN…

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Professor Ann Simon's paper “Impact of the α optical model potential on the γ-process nucleosynthesis” investigates the impact of the nuclear properties on the γ-process nucleosynthesis. γ-process is a nucleosynthesis scenario responsible for production of proton-rich isotopes of heavy nuclei. Since the reaction network that describe the γ-process is based on model predictions of the rates of all the reactions involved (only in few cases these can be measured directly) understanding of the impact of the current models of the nuclear properties is important for constraining the predictions of the network calculations. In this work, the analysis focused on the α-optical model potential; future work will investigate impact of other parameters, e.g. γ-strength function.

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John Mihelich, Professor Emeritus of Physics, has passed away in Fort Collins, Colorado, on March 10. John was a long-time member of our faculty and our nuclear physics group, joining Notre Dame in 1954 from Brookhaven. While here, he gained a national reputation in gamma-ray spectroscopy, training in his lab many of the later leaders in the field. He and his wife, Jan, raised three children in South Bend, spending their free time in travel, camping, and classical music. John retired in 1989, and he and Jan eventually moved to Fort Collins. …

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Nuclear graduate student, Nirupama Sensharma has been selected to the 2017 cohort of the NSF-sponsored training program Social Responsibilities of Researchers (SRR) in the Reilly Center.

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Professor Graham Peaslee's research paper titled “Fluorinated Compounds in U.S. Fast Food Packaging” has received national attention after the first 2 weeks of its published release on February 1 in Environmental and Science Technology Letters…

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