Ben Brubaker.
Dr. Benjamin Brubaker won the 2019 Mitsuyoshi Tanaka Dissertation Award in Experimental Particle Physics from the American Physics Society (APS)
Dr. Brubaker is currently a postdoctoral research associate at JILA working with Dr. Konrad Lehnert. Brubaker completed his doctoral thesis work at Yale, where he made outstanding contributions to the design and construction of, and detailed the first results from, the HAYSTAC (Haloscope at Yale Sensitive to Axion Cold) dark matter experimental detector. Brubaker’s thesis reports a major milestone in the progress to detect hypothetical particles called axions, which are leading candidates for “cold dark matter.”
“I'm very honored for this recognition of my dissertation, which would not have been possible without the support of collaborators from Yale, Berkeley, and JILA,” said Brubaker. “I'm gratified that the APS Division of Particles and Fields has chosen to highlight the kind of particle physics that can be explored with tabletop experiments, and I hope this will encourage more research in the application of quantum technologies to problems in fundamental physics.”
Established in 1999 in memory of Dr. Mitsuyoshi Tanaka, this dissertation award recognizes exceptional young scientists who have performed outstanding scientific doctoral thesis work in experimental particle physics. In addition to certificate and recognition, this annual award offers $1,500 and a invitation to a meeting of the APS Division of Particles and Fields (DPF) or a DPF session at APS April Meeting.
Previous recipients of the Mitsuyoshi Tanaka Dissertation Award include Alysia D. Marino (2006), who is now an associate Professor of Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder.
The Physics Frontiers Centers (PFC) program supports university-based centers and institutes where the collective efforts of a larger group of individuals can enable transformational advances in the most promising research areas. The program is designed to foster major breakthroughs at the intellectual frontiers of physics by providing needed resources such as combinations of talents, skills, disciplines, and/or specialized infrastructure, not usually available to individual investigators or small groups, in an environment in which the collective efforts of the larger group can be shown to be seminal to promoting significant progress in the science and the education of students. PFCs also include creative, substantive activities aimed at enhancing education, broadening participation of traditionally underrepresented groups, and outreach to the scientific community and general public.