2007

Graduate students Greg Mack and Luke Corwin were the first and second place winners, respectively, in the Math and Physical Sciences section of the 2007 Edward F. Hayes Graduate Research Forum. This university-wide competition, which is based on both written and oral presentations, involved approximately 40 students from the College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

Greg, a CCAPP graduate student of Prof. John Beacom, presented his research in theoretical astrophysics on "Towards Closing the Window on Strongly Interacting Dark Matter: Far-Reaching Constraints from Earth's Heat Flow". While the nature of the dark matter remains unknown, this work shows that its interaction rate with ordinary matter must be extremely weak. This research was conducted in the Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics.

Luke, a student of Prof. Klaus Honscheid, presented his research in experimental particle physics entitled "Searching for Physics Beyond the Standard Model with a Rare Decay." The Standard Model is the theory of particle physics, and the decay in question had not been observed before. Luke performed this measurement as a member of the BaBar Collaboration.