News
May 24, 2012
Lisa Whitehead, assistant professor of physics
at University of Houston, is one of 68 U.S. scientists selected to receive the
Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science’s Early Career Research Award. The
five-year awards are designed to bolster the nation’s scientific workforce by
providing support to exceptional researchers during the early career years. The
research awards also provide an incentive for scientists focusing on research
areas that are a high priority for the DOE and the nation. Applicants direct
their proposals to one of the DOE Office of Science's six major program
offices: Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Basic Energy Sciences,
Biological and Environmental Research, Fusion Energy Sciences, High Energy
Physics, and Nuclear Physics. About
850 university- and national laboratory-based applicants applied for the
program. Selection was based on peer review by outside scientific experts.
Whitehead is one of only three researchers selected from the state of Texas. “This
is a significant honor for Dr. Whitehead and the University of Houston,” said Dr.
Mark A. Smith, dean of UH’s College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. “Many
scientists do their most formative work in their early career. This DOE support
will positively impact her ability to focus on her research into neutrinos and antineutrinos
and will give her well deserved national and international attention.” Whitehead’s research proposal, “Precision
Measurement of Electron Antineutrino Disappearance in the Daya Bay Experiment,”
was selected for funding by the DOE’s Office of High Energy Physics. The Daya
Bay Neutrino Experiment is a multi-national collaboration in south
China, involving around 230 researchers from 38 institutions in the U.S.,
China, and Europe. Whitehead has been
involved with the Daya Bay Experiment since 2007. Recent experimental
observations at Daya Bay revealed the disappearance of electron-type
antineutrinos from nuclear reactor cores at the Daya Bay Power Plant. Massive
detectors buried in the mountains adjacent to the nuclear reactors are used to
measure the interactions of antineutrinos. Neutrinos are one
of the fundamental particles that make up the universe. Free of electric charge,
they are created as a result of certain types of radioactive decay or from nuclear
reactions such as those that take place in the sun or in nuclear reactors. They
can travel great distances through matter without being affected by it or harming
it. There are three types of neutrinos: electron, muon and tau neutrinos. Each
type has a corresponding antiparticle, called an antineutrino. Whitehead’s research
will focus on background interactions caused by cosmic muons that can interfere
with the antineutrino measurements, with the goal of improving the precision of
the antineutrino disappearance measurement. To
be eligible for an Early Career Research Program award, a researcher must have
received a Ph.D. within the past ten years and be an untenured, tenure-track
assistant or associate professor at a U.S. academic institution or a full-time
employee at a DOE national laboratory. A
list of the DOE Office
of Science Early Career Research Award recipients, their institutions
and abstracts of their research projects is available at http://science.energy.gov/early-career/. -
Kathy Major, College of Natural Sciences and MathematicsWhitehead Receives DOE Office of Science Early Career Research AwardUH Physicist One of 68 Promising Researchers Selected in Nation
