Wick Haxton

Wick Haxton
Alma mater	Stanford University University of California, Santa Cruz
Employer	University of California, Berkeley University of Washington
Awards	Guggenheim Fellowship (physics, 2000) Hans A. Bethe Prize (2004) Humboldt Research Fellowship

Wick C. Haxton (born August 21, 1949, in Santa Cruz, California) is an American theoretical nuclear physicist and astrophysicist.^[1] He is a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley and senior faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.^[2] He was appointed a co-editor of the journal Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science as of 2023.^[3] In 2024, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.^[4]

Education

Haxton grew up in Santa Cruz,^[5] studied from 1967 at the University of California, Santa Cruz (BA in physics and mathematics 1971) and received his doctorate in 1976 at Stanford University for his work on Semileptonic Weak Interactions in Complex Nuclei (1975).^[6][2]

Career

From 1975 to 1977 he worked at the Institute for Nuclear Physics of the University of Mainz and then until 1985 as Oppenheimer Fellow in the theoretical division of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. After a year as assistant professor at Purdue University in 1984 he became associate professor and in 1987 professor at the University of Washington. He remained there as professor of physics and astronomy until 2009, serving from 1991 to 2006 as director of the National Institute for Nuclear Theory (INT). In 2009 he left the University of Washington to become professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley and senior faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.^[2][7][8]

Research

Haxton is engaged in nuclear astrophysics (supernovae, the solar neutrino problem, nucleosynthesis), neutrino physics (neutrino oscillations, neutrinoless double beta decay, neutrino properties), many-body theory (effective theories) in nuclear physics (as well as in atomic physics and condensed matter physics), and tests of symmetries of fundamental interactions (parity, CP-symmetry, lepton number).^[1][9] Haxton and his colleagues put forward a method for the formulation of an effective field theory for shell model using the harmonic oscillator basis as a regulator.^[10][11] He led the early efforts to convert the Homestake Mine in South Dakota to scientific use as the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory, but left the project after the mine was flooded in 2003.^[12][13][14]

Haxton has been a consultant for Los Alamos National Laboratory,^[2] Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, TRIUMF, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and various other laboratories and university facilities over the past two decades.^[15]

Awards and honors

He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (1987),^[16] and in the 1990s served as chair of the Division of Nuclear Physics and the Division of Astrophysics.^[2] He is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences (1999),^[1] and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,^[17] the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1988),^[2] and the Washington State Academy of Sciences.^[18]

He was a Guggenheim Fellow (2000–2001),^[19] Visiting Miller Professor at Berkeley (2001),^[20] Bethe Lecturer at Cornell University (2001)^[7] and received the 2004 Hans Bethe Prize of the American Physical Society for his contributions and scientific leadership in neutrino astrophysics and especially for the connection of nuclear physics theory with experiments and observations in nuclear astrophysics and astrophysics (eulogy).^[9]

He is a member of the American Philosophical Society (2024).^[21]

References

1. "Wick C. Haxton". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
2. "Haxton, Wick C." American Institute of Physics. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
3. "Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science". Annual Reviews. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
4. "The American Philosophical Society Welcomes New Members for 2024".
5. "Wick Haxton (Oral History)". American Institute of Physics. 6 April 2022. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
6. Haxton, W.; Bertsch, G.; Henley, E. M. (1 July 1993). Institute for Nuclear Theory. Annual report No. 3, 1 March 1992--28 February 1993. Washington Univ., Seattle, WA (United States). p. A1. doi:10.2172/10165676.
7. Brand, David (April 11, 2001). "Physicist to ponder fate of universe in Bethe lectures at Cornell". Cornell Chronicle. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
8. "Wick Haxton: A Polymath's Approach to Nuclear Theory - Berkeley Lab". Berkeley Lab News Center. 30 September 2009. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
9. "2004 Hans A. Bethe Prize Recipient". American Physical Society. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
10. Binder, S.; Ekström, Jan A.; Hagen, Gaute; Papenbrock, Thomas F.; Wendt, Kyle A. (25 April 2016). "Effective field theory in the harmonic oscillator basis". Physical Review C. 93 (4): 044332. arXiv:1512.03802. Bibcode:2016PhRvC..93d4332B. doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.93.044332. ISSN 2469-9985. S2CID 85457544. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
11. Stroberg, S. Ragnar; Hergert, Heiko; Bogner, Scott K.; Holt, Jason D. (19 October 2019). "Nonempirical Interactions for the Nuclear Shell Model: An Update". Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science. 69 (1): 307–362. arXiv:1902.06154. Bibcode:2019ARNPS..69..307S. doi:10.1146/annurev-nucl-101917-021120. ISSN 0163-8998. S2CID 119021672. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
12. Malakoff, David (4 Jun 2003). "Homestake Hopes Dampened". Science. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
13. Dawson, Jim (August 2003). "South Dakota Governor Pushes for Underground Lab as Homestake Water Rises". Physics Today. 56 (8): 24–25. Bibcode:2003PhT....56h..24D. doi:10.1063/1.1611345.
14. Chang, Kenneth (9 June 2003). "At Former Mine, Battle Rages Over Planned Lab". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
15. "VITA: Wick C. Haxton" (PDF). National Institute for Nuclear Theory. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
16. "APS Fellow Archive". American Physical Society. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
17. "Wick C. Haxton". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. 25 May 2023. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
18. "2021-2022 Membership Directory" (PDF). Washington State Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
19. "Wick Haxton". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation... Retrieved 25 May 2023.
20. "Miller Institute Members" (PDF). Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science celebrating 50 years. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
21. "Wick Haxton Elected to the American Philosophical Society". UC Berkeley Physics. Retrieved 23 Sep 2024.