When UT’s physicists got involved in neutrino physics by joining the KamLAND (Kamioka Liquid Scintillator Anti-Neutrino Detector) experiment in 1997, they weren’t looking for financial gain. Yet with the experiment’s recent selection for the Breakthrough Awards Fundamental Physics prize, their efforts will, quite literally, pay off.
This is the third year for the awards, which honor achievements in fundamental physics, life sciences, and mathematics. Collectively the awards distributed about $22 million to scientists, mathematicians, and one high school student. The fundamental physics honor brings with it $3 million in prize money, this year to be divided among five neutrino experiments and more than 1,300 physicists, including the KamLAND project.
UT-related researchers listed among the KamLAND laureates are Professor Yuri Efremenko; Professor Yuri Kamyshkov; Professor Emeritus William Bugg; Mikhail Batygov, who received his doctorate in UT and is now with Carleton University in Canada; and Alexandre Kozlov, a former UT postdoctoral student who is now at Kavli IPMU in Japan. Each laureate will receive about $2,000 in the fundamental physics category.
Continue reading on the Department of Physics and Astronomy website.