Alice Bean

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alice Bean
Academic background
Alma mater
Academic work
DisciplinePhysicist
Sub-disciplineParticle physics
InstitutionsUniversity of Kansas

Alice Louise Bean is an American physicist whose research concerns particle physics, and particularly particles beyond those predicted from the standard model of particle physics. She is a distinguished professor of physics at the University of Kansas.[1][2]

Education and career[edit]

Bean earned bachelor's degrees in Physics, as well as Information and Computer Science, at the University of California at Irvine. She earned an MS and PhD in physics from Carnegie Mellon University. After a postdoctoral research appointment at the University of California, Santa Barbara, she joined the faculty of the University of Kansas in 1993, with a research focus in experimental particle physics.[1]

Bean’s early career work focused on studies of b and c quarks. She helped lead tracking detector development for the D0 collaboration at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and helped develop the silicon particle detectors for the Compact Muon Solenoid collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider[3]. Her research interests include analysis of top quarks with the Higgs boson, and searching for compressed scenario supersymmetric particle decays with small candidate mass differences. She was a member of the collaboration that experimentally discovered the Higgs Boson[4]. In addition, she contributed to development of radio detectors deployed at the South Pole in search of ultra-high energy neutrino decays.[1]

Her outreach activity includes work on climate change issues with the Office of Religion and Global Affairs of the U.S. Department of State. Bean helped create, and serves as the Project Director and Lead Content Advisor for, a multimedia education project called Quarked!.[1] The content is focused on nanoscale and particle physics concepts for young children.[5]

Recognition[edit]

Bean was appointed a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2011 for her contributions to silicon detectors, heavy quark physics, and Quarked![6]. She has won the University of Kansas Henry E. Gould award for distinguished service to undergraduate engineering education and in 2007 she was awarded the Wally and Marie Steeples faculty award for Outstanding Service to the People of Kansas.[7]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d "Alice L. Bean", Faculty Directory, University of Kansas, retrieved 2022-10-20
  2. ^ KU physicists working on part for relaunch of world's largest particle collider, Lawrence Journal-World, retrieved 2022-10-20
  3. ^ Shepherd, Sarah (23 March 2015). "KU physicists working on part for relaunch of world's largest particle collider". Lawrence Journal-World. Retrieved 2022-10-20.
  4. ^ Unglesbee, Ben (13 October 2013). "KU research team helped find the Higgs boson". Lawrence Journal-World. Retrieved 2022-10-20.
  5. ^ Particle Physics for Preschoolers, Symmetry Magazine, retrieved 2022-10-20
  6. ^ 2011 APS Fellows, APS Division of Particles and Fields, retrieved 2022-10-20
  7. ^ National Academies of Sciences, nationalacademies.org, retrieved 2022-10-20