Oliver Keith Baker is an American experimental particle physicist and astrophysicist, best known for his work on the Higgs boson and dark matter. In 2002, he won the Edward Alexander Bouchet Award of the American Physical Society: "For his contribution to nuclear and particle physics; for building the infrastructure to do these measurements; and for being active in outreach activities, both locally and nationally."[1]
Oliver Keith Baker | |
|---|---|
| Born | 18 July 1959 |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Stanford University Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Awards | Edward A. Bouchet Award (2002) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Particle Physics Astrophysics |
| Institutions | Yale University Hampton University ATLAS Collaboration |
| Doctoral advisor | Arthur B. C. Walker Jr. |
Early life and education edit
Oliver Keith Baker was born in McGehee, Arkansas in 1959 to parents Oliver and Yvonne Baker, and grew up in Memphis, Tennessee.[2]
Keith Baker received his B.S. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1981. Baker completed both his M.S. in physics and mathematics in 1984 and his Ph.D. in physics in 1987 from Stanford working on experimental nuclear physics.[1]
Career edit
Baker completed a post-doc at Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1986 to 1988 conducting research on muon catalyzed fusion.[2] After his post-doc, Baker joined Hampton University in 1989[3] as an assistant professor in the physics department with a joint appointment as a staff scientist at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.[4] In 2002, Baker received an Endowed University Professorship from Hampton University for his contributions to experimental nuclear and particle physics research as well as his work in outreach activities.[3][1]
In 2006, Baker began professorship at Yale University where he was the first tenured African American faculty member in the physics department.[5] Baker is a member of the ATLAS Collaboration, which in 2012 discovered the Higgs boson predicted by the Standard Model.[6] Baker also models dark sector analogues of Standard Model photons called paraphotons, which may be experimentally supported by observing the spectrum of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays from BL Lacertae objects.[7]
In 2010, Baker became director of Yale's A. W. Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory,[4][8] which includes state-of-the-art facilities for the study of neutrinos, dark matter and fundamental physics. In February 2021 he was appointed to Yale's D. Allan Bromley Professorship of Physics.[9]
Awards and honors edit
- Elmbers Innes Award from the National Society of Black Physicists.[4]
- US ATLAS Distinguished Researcher
- E. L. Hamm, Sr. Distinguished Teaching Award [4]
- 2002 - Edward Alexander Bouchet Award[10] from the American Physical Society.[4]
- 2006 - Inducted into Arkansas Black Hall of Fame[2]
References edit
- ^ a b c "2002 Edward A. Bouchet Award Recipient". American Physical Society. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
- ^ a b c "Physicist credits his Tillar roots". Arkansas Democrat Gazette. November 7, 2016. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
- ^ a b "Oliver Keith Baker - Physicist of the African Diaspora". www.math.buffalo.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-14.
- ^ a b c d e "Oliver Baker". The History Makers. March 10, 2013. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
- ^ "Physics Expands by Five Profs". Yale Daily News. September 6, 2006. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
- ^ The ATLAS Collaboration, "Observation of a new particle in the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector at the LHC", Phys. Lett. B 716:1-29 (2012).
- ^ O. K. Baker and R. J. Anantua, "TeV gamma rays from distant BL Lacs and photon-paraphoton kinetic mixing" Phys. Lett. B 290:25-28 (2010)
- ^ "Wright Laboratory". Yale. 2020. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
- ^ "Keith Baker appointed the D. Allan Bromley Professor of Physics". Physics Department, Yale University. April 13, 2021.
- ^ "Edward A. Bouchet Award". American Physical Society. 2002. Retrieved 20 October 2020.