SLAC

In this interview, David Fryberger discusses: childhood in Minnesota and Florida; Korean War service; studying experimental particle physics at the University of Chicago under Val Telegdi; muon X-ray experiments and the first experimental use of spark chambers; Bruce Winstein’s early work; using the “coffin magnet” in spectrometer experimentation; using feedback loops to automate muon decay experiment; early operations at SLAC; invention and patent of the touch panel; work with Arthur Rogers on baryon-antibaryon model for meson mass and structure; Mark I detector build with Burton Richter; role in the “November Revolution”; Ting and Richter’s discovery of the meson nuclear particle; innovations for the Mark I storage ring; Buford Price’s work and its influence on storage ring experiments and the SLAC Positron Electron Project (PEP); magnetic monopole search at PEP; collaboration with Price on PEP-2; technical details of his vorton theory papers and the vorton particle model; discussion of Blas Cabrera’s work with magnetic monopoles; ball lightning (BL) experiment at Languir Laboratory in NM; Erling Strand and Fryberger’s Hessdalen paper; problems with BL computer simulations; experiences working under Panofsky and Richter; cavity light (CL) phenomena and collaborations with JLAB on CL experimentation; small luminous object (MLO) behavior; physics beyond the Standard Model; collaborations with Michael Sullivan; magneticon phenomena; capability of finding and observing vortons; coining the term “vorton”; incompatibility of the vorton model with string theory; differences between experimental and theoretical physicists; Neil Weiner and inelastic dark matter scattering (iDM); current work on iDM model viability and magnetic hydrogen as a working hypothesis for a dark matter candidate; and thinking outside the box of the physics establishment. Toward the end of the interview, Fryberger reflects on his work at SLAC in a staff support position and his hopes to mount an experimental CL program post-COVID.

David Zierler interviews Larry Gladney, professor of physics and Dean of Diversity and Faculty Development at Yale. He describes the origins of this Dean position, and how he worked to make STEM a more inclusive, accepting place over the course of his career. He recounts his childhood in East St. Louis, opportunities that led to an undergraduate education at Northwestern, where he developed interests in experimental physics. He explains the attraction of being recruited to Stanford; Burt Richter invited him to work at SLAC. He describes his thesis research under the direction of John Jaros and Bob Hollebeek, looking for supersymmetric electrons. Gladney discusses postdoctoral research at Penn, where he worked with Brig Williams on the CDF project. He also goes into the excitement surrounding the search for the top quark at Fermilab. He describes joining Penn’s faculty, while also getting involved in diversity promotion within/beyond the physics department. He then discusses contributions to the BaBar collaboration and he explains the interest of particle physicists moving into cosmological research, at the turn of the century. Gladney describes his time as the department chair at Penn and his work on LIGO and the LSST, and he discusses the state of play in high-energy physics in the post-SSC environment. At the end, he surveys some of the most promising research in cosmology and why engaging young students is so crucial for the future of the field. 

This is an interview with David Kaplan, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University. He recounts his childhood in New York and then Seattle, and he explains his complex Jewish-Israeli family roots. Kaplan describes his early aptitude for math, and he discusses his education at Chapman College and his transfer to Berkeley, where he completed his undergraduate degree in physics. He explains his near-accidental entrée into the graduate program in physics at the University of Washington, and he describes the formative influence of Ann Nelson. He conveys the excitement surrounding supersymmetry during his time in graduate school and his research on quark masses, and he recounts his postdoctoral research, which was split between Argonne Lab and the University of Chicago. Kaplan discusses the crisis of confidence he felt in his early career and he describes his second postdoctoral appointment at SLAC where he worked with Savas Dimopoulos on supersymmetry and became involved in the B physics endeavor. He conveys his long-held contempt for string theory and attacks it on both sociological and scientific grounds, and he explains the circumstances leading to his hire and tenure at Johns Hopkins. Kaplan describes how he used startup funds to invite speakers to the department, and he explains how imposter syndrome affects faculty members as much as anyone else. He explains the various issues surrounding the cancellation of the SSC, the viability of the LHC, and the prospects of the ILC, and he offers his view on what these projects say about the state of particle physics globally. Kaplan discusses the significance of WIMP dark matter, and why more physicists should work on issues beyond string theory and collider physics. At the end of the interview, Kaplan describes how he tries to make his research an antidote to the problems he sees in the field, and he discusses his ongoing interest in general Higgs decays.