The LBNL Nuclear Physics Forum (NP Forum) is a weekly (more or less) seminar series covering topics in low-energy nuclear science, including nuclear structure, nuclear chemistry and heavy element research, applied physics and much more. The NP Forum series involves the nuclear structure group, heavy element research group and research groups from the UC Berkeley campus. NP Forums are **typically** scheduled for 1pm on Tuesdays or 2pm on Thursdays in the Building 88 2nd floor conference room area, with refreshments (coffee + cookies) available 15 minutes ahead of the talk.
2024 NP Forum Series
Upcoming Forums
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
11:00 AM, Bldg. 88 Upstairs Common Area
“Decay Modes of Exotic Nuclei”
Yuliia Hrabar, Division of Particle and Nuclear Physics, Lund University
Past Forums
Thursday, January 11, 2023
“Precision studies of radioactive atoms and molecules for nuclear science”
Dr. Shane Wilkins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Thursday, January 18, 2024
“The Influence and Description of Near- or Beyond-Threshold States in Nuclei”
Dr. Calem Hoffman, Argonne National Laboratory
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
“Spherical Powders: Control Over the Size and Morphology of Powders for Additive Manufacturing and Enriched Stable Nuclear Targets”
Dr. Mike Zach, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Tuesday, February 6, 2024
“Revealing Unknown Nuclear Properties with Next-Gen Precision Techniques”
Dr. Jonas Karthein, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Thursday, February 8, 2024
“Charting the Nuclear Landscape at the Extremes”
Dr. Brenden Longfellow, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Tuesday, February 13, 2024
“The nuclear force across scales”
Dr. Julian Kahlbow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Thursday, February 15, 2024
“A new life for Millennial devices from modern experimental techniques”
Dr. Rodney Orford, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
“Galactic Forensics: Using Stellar Debris to Investigate Explosive Nucleosynthesis”
Dr. Wei Jia Ong, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Tuesday, August 27, 2024
“The St. Benedict facility: Precision measurements of nuclear beta decays”
Dr. Sam Porter, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Notre Dame
Thursday, August 29, 2024
“Emerging questions on highly excited states”
Dr. Yang Sun, School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
2023 Forums
Thursday, October 19, 2023
“The SAGE Spectrometer – Combined Electron and Gamma Ray Spectroscopy for Heavy Elements”
Dr. Rodi Herzberg, University of Liverpool
Thursday, May 25, 2023
“Decay studies of proton-rich nuclei near 100Sn with AIDA at RIKEN”
Dr. Corrigan Appleton, University of Edinburgh
Tuesday, June 27, 2023
“Mass measurements of short-lived isotopes and recent upgrades to TITAN’s Penning trap”
Marilena Lykiardopoulou, TRIUMF
Tuesday, September 12, 2023
“Simultaneous Measurements of Secondary Neutrons and Gamma Rays from Neutron Scattering on 56Fe”
Mr. Joey Gordon, UC Berkeley and LBNL
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
“Nuclear Physics Needs For Accreted Neutron Star Crusts”
Dr. Wei Jia Ong, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Tuesday, October 10, 2023
“A status report on the production of ion beams required for future superheavy element discoveries”
Dr. Damon Todd, LBNL
2020–2022 Forums (Pandemic)
Thursday, August 27, 2020
“Development of 129I AMS at the NSL for Measurements of the Great Lakes Region”
Dr. Michael Skulski, Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame
Wednesday, May 5, 2021
“The (p,3p) two-proton removal from neutron-rich nuclei and the development of the STRASSE tracker”
Mr. Axel Frotscher, Institut fur Kernphysik, TU Darmstadt
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
“Spectroscopy along Decay Chains of Element 114, Flerovium”
Mr. Anton Samark-Roth, Department of Physics, Lund University
Wednesday, June 9, 2021
“Configuration mixing investigation in germanium isotopes through measurement of E0 transition strengths”
Ms. Carlotta Porzio, University of Milan
Thursday, July 8, 2021
“Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy of Neutron-Rich 111Mo, 85,87Ge and Self-Conjugate 88Ru Far From Stability”
Dr. Özge Aktas, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
Friday, July 9, 2021
“Experimental Studies of the Neutron Deficient Atomic Nuclei 88Ru and 87Tc, and the Diagonalization of the Pairing Hamiltonian”
Dr. Xiaoyu Liu, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
Thursday, January 20, 2022, 12:00 PM
“Artificial intelligence and machine learning frameworks for securing cyber-physical systems”
Dr. Mustafa Abdallah, Purdue University, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Monday, January 24, 2022, 9:00 AM
“Machine Learning-Based Decision Making in Autonomous Systems”
Dr. Behzad Ghazanfari, University of South Carolina
Monday, April 11, 2022, 9:00 AM
“Statistical tools for extracting information”
Dr. Victor Watson, Commissariat à l’energie Atomique / Université Bretagne Sud
Friday, April 15, 2022, 9:00 AM
“Recurrent Neural Networks for Dynamical Systems: Applications to Ordinary Differential Equations, Collective Motion, and Hydrological Modeling”
Dr. Yonggi Park, Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi
Tuesday, May 31, 2022, 9:00 AM
“Groundbreaking Chemistry from Simple-Nuclear Physics: Recent Results on Heavy Elements from FIONA”
Dr. Jennifer Pore, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Thursday, June 2, 2022, 9:00 AM
“Negative Radioactive Ions: a novel spectroscopy tool for rare isotope science”
Dr. Erich Leistenschneider, CERN-ISOLDE
Wednesday, June 22, 2022, 9:00 AM
“Reaction Dynamics of Heavy and Superheavy Element Synthesis – Towards Expanding New Frontiers of Nuclear Physics and Chemistry”
Dr. Taiki Tanaka, Australian National University
Friday, July 15, 2022, 9:00 AM
“From Isomers to Isospin”
Dr. Daniel Hoff, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Wednesday, July 20, 2022, 9:00 AM
“Electromagnetic Dipole Response of Nuclei: Exploring Nuclear Structures and Constraining Nucleosynthesis Processes”
Dr. Mathis Wiedeking, iThemba LABS, Cape Town, South Africa, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Friday, July 22, 2022, 9:00 AM
“Nuclear Data for Science and Applications”
Dr. Anastasia Georgiadou, Department of Nuclear Engineering, U. C. Berkeley, and Nuclear Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Wednesday, July 27, 2022, 9:00 AM
“Neutron-induced gamma rays and radioactive-decay data for basic science and applications”
Dr. Aaron M. Hurst, Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley
2019 Forums
Wednesday, February 20, 2019, 11:00 AM
“Precision Measurements in the Region of the Heaviest Elements”
Prof. Michael Block, GSI Helmholtzzentrum fur Schwerionenforschung
Thursday, February 28, 2019, 11:00 AM
“New Approach for Determination of Stellar Nucleosynthesis Abundances”
Dr. Boris Pritychenko, NNDC, Brookhaven National Laboratory
Thursday, March 7, 2019, 11:00 AM
“The Current Status of Vud and the Top-Row CKM Unitarity Test: How Did We Get Here?”
Prof. Kyle Leach, Colorado School of Mines
Thursday, March 21, 2019, 11:00 AM
“Neutrons at the 88-Inch Cyclotron”
Dr. Darren Bleuel, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Thursday, April 18, 2019, 11:00 AM
“Reaction spectroscopy unveils new features in rare isotopes”
Prof. Ritu Kanungo, St. Mary’s University
Thursday, May 2, 2019, 11:00 AM
“Studying Nuclear Astrophysics with Laser-Generated High-Energy-Density Plasmas”
Dr. Alex Zylstra, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Friday, May 17, 2019, 11:00 AM
“Nuclear Incompressibility: How Collective Excitation Modes of a Nucleus Characterize Astrophysical Processes”
Prof. Umesh Garg, University of Notre Dame
Thursday, May 23, 2019, 10:00 AM
“Nuclear Collectivity and Deformation”
Dr. Jack Henderson, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Thursday, November 14, 2019, 11:00 AM
“Shape Coexistence and Islands of Inversion”
Prof. Alfredo Poves
Tuesday, December 10, 2019, 11:00 AM
“Nuclear Science for National Security Applications”
Dr. Bethany Goldblum, University of California Berkeley
Thursday, December 12, 2019, 10:30 AM
“High-precision mass measurements for nuclear structure and astrophysics studies”
Jonas Karthein, CERN & Universitat Heidelberg, Germany
2018 Forums
Thursday, February 1, 2018, 10:00 AM
“Enhanced collectivity in 12Be”
Dr. Christopher Morse, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Monday*, February 12, 2018, 11:00 AM
“Search for CPT-violation in Positronium”
Ms. Chelsea Bartram, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Thursday, February 15, 2018, 11:00 AM
“Nuclear Physics with Time Projection Chambers”
Dr. Clementine Santamaria, National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL)
Thursday, February 22, 2018, 11:00 AM
“Decays of rare isotopes: From the precision frontier to the limits of stability”
Prof. Gwen Grinyer, University of Regina
Friday*, March 9, 2018, 11:00 AM
“Beyond the Brink-Axel Hypothesis”
Prof. Calvin Johnson, San Diego State University
Thursday, March 15, 2018, 11:00 AM
“Sympectic symmetry in ab initio nuclear structure”
Prof. Mark A. Caprio, University of Notre Dame
Tuesday, March 20, 2018, 2:00 PM*
“Calculation of the 3/2+ resonance pole of 5He and its shadow companion in the Berggren basis”
Dr. Rodolfo M. Id Betan, Physics Institute of Rosario, Conicet. Argentina
Thursday, April 26, 2018, 11:00 AM
“Thermonuclear reactions probed at stellar core conditions with laser-based inertial confinement fusion”
Dr. Daniel T. Casey, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Friday, May 11, 2018, 11:00 AM
“Precision Penning trap mass measurements with a phase-imaging technique”
Rodney Orford, Argonne National Laboratory
Tuesday*, October 30, 2018, 11:00 AM
Title TBA (Topic: Reactions of exotic nuclei)
Dr. Mahir Hussein, Institute of Physics, University of Sao Paulo
Thursday, November 1, 2018, 11:00 AM
“From NN Correlations to 3N Force Effects in Nuclear Structure Observables”
Dr. Marina Petri, University of York
Friday*, November 9, 2018, 11:00 AM
“Exploration of the Nuclear Landscape with ISOLDE/CERN”
Dr. Andree Welker, CERN/ISOLDE
Thursday, November 15, 2018, 11:00 AM
“Production and Separation of Rare Isotopes for Science at FRIB”
Dr. Marc Hausmann, Facility for Rare Isotope Beams
Thursday, December 13, 2018, 10:00 AM**
“Nuclear Spectroscopy of Superheavy Nuclei”
Prof. Dirk Rudolph, University of Lund
2017 Forums
Thursday, April 6, 2017, 11:00 AM
“Recent Activity at RCNP”
Prof. Nori Aoi, RCNP, Osaka University
Thursday, May 4, 2017, 11:00 AM
“Tales of the unexpected – the saga of nuclear shape coexistence”
Prof. John Wood, School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology
Thursday, June 15, 2017, 11:00 AM
“Nuclear matrix elements for neutrinoless double beta decay – a challenge to experimental and theoretical nuclear-structure physics”
Dr. Benjamin Kay, Argonne National Laboratory
Thursday, July 20, 2017, 11:00 AM
“The search for nuclear-plasma interactions at the Nuclear Ignition Facility”
Dr. Darren Bleuel, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Thursday, October 12, 2017, 11:00 AM
“Semi-classical calculations for 156Gd(p,d) reactions on Gd isotopes”
Professor Hafez Radi, MSA University (Cairo, Egypt)
Friday, October 13, 2017, 11:00 AM
“A new Approximate Symmetry, Proxy-SU(3), and parameter-free predictions for deformed nuclei”
Prof. Rick Casten, Yale University and Michigan State University
Thursday, October 19, 2017, 11:00 AM
“Creation and survival of 180Ta in stellar environments plus a brief overview of nuclear research at the ANU”
Dr. Greg Lane, Australian National University
Thursday, October 26, 2017, 11:00 AM
“First Experimental Evidence of Nuclear Excitation by Electron Capture”
Dr. Chris Chiara, Army Research Laboratory
“Measurements of the Prompt Fission Neutron Spectrum for Spontaneous Fission of 252Cf Using the Multiple Gamma Tagging Method”
Dr. Ezekiel Blain, Gaerttner Linac Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
2016 Forums
Thursday, January 14, 2016, 11:00 AM
“Biological coordination of f-elements: From nuclear decontamination to targeted radiotherapy”
Dr. Christopher Morse, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Thursday, January 21, 2016, 11:00 AM
“Transfer reactions with exotic beams: challenges and opportunities”
Prof. Alan Wuosmaa, University of Connecticut
Thursday, February 4, 2016, 11:00 AM
“Radionuclide Production in the Los Alamos Isotope Program”
Dr. Jonathan Engle, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Thursday, February 11, 2016, 11:00 AM
“The Element Hunters”
Dr. Claude Lyneis, LBNL
An (original) short film covering the discovery of elements 99, 100 and 101 by Albert Ghiorso and his colleagues at the Rad Lab in Berkeley (1951-1955). The work was done under Glenn Seaborg’s general direction with members of the Rad Lab’s Chemistry Division, which later became the Nuclear Science Division.
“Average gamma decay properties in 64Ni: Applying the Oslo Method”
Ms. Lucia Crespo Campo, University of Oslo
Tuesday, March 22, 2016, 11:00 AM
“Multi-reflection time-of-flight mass separation and spectrometry at ISOLTRAP”
Dr. Robert Wolf, Max-Planck-Institut fur Kernphysik (Heidelberg)
Thursday, March 24, 2016, 11:00 AM
“Experimental investigation of Helium capture reactions of astrophysical interest”
Prof. Manoel Couder, University of Notre Dame
Thursday, March 31, 2016, 11:00 AM
“Development of Platforms for Nuclear Science Research in High Energy Density Plasmas at the National Ignition Facility”
Dr. Dawn Shaughnessy, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Thursday, April 7, 2016, 11:00 AM
“Double Beta Decay and the Nuclear Shell Model”
Prof. B. Alex Brown, Michigan State University and NSCL
Thursday, April 14, 2016, 11:00 AM
“Development of Scintillation Dosimeters for Modern Radiation Oncology”
Luc Beaulieu, Universite Laval Cancer Research Centre
Thursday, May 12, 2016, 11:00 AM
“Low energy magnetic radiation (LEMAR) of warm nuclei”
Prof. Stefan Frauendorf, University of Notre Dame
Wednesday, June 22, 2016, 11:00 AM
“Photon strength functions at the tail of Giant Electric Dipole Resonance – Overview of experimental methods”
Prof. Milan Krticka, Charles University in Prague
Thursday, June 23, 2016, 11:00 AM
“Emergent properties of nuclei from ab initio calculations”
Prof. Morten Hjorth-Jensen, University of Oslo and MSU
Thursday, July 14, 2016, 11:00 AM
“Do Atomic Nuclei have Time-Dependent Shape Vibrations at Low Excitation Energies?”
Prof. John Sharpey-Schafer, University of the Western Cape
Thursday, August 18, 2016, 11:00 AM
“Proton-Neutron Pairing and Quartet Correlations in Nuclei”
Prof. Nicolae Sandulescu, NIPNE, Bucarest
Thursday, October 6, 2016, 11:00 AM
“Nuclear binding near a quantum phase transition”
Prof. Dean Lee, North Carolina State University
Tuesday, October 11, 2016, 11:30 AM
“From the 8pi to GRIFFIN: Beta-Decay Measurements of Semi-Magic Nuclei”
Ms. Jennifer Pore, Simon Fraser University & TRIUMF
Thursday, October 20, 2016, 11:00 AM
“Studying Explosive Nucleosynthesis of Proton-Rich Nuclei”
Prof. Catherine Deibel, Louisiana State University
Tuesday, November 1, 2016, 11:00 AM
“3D Gamma-Ray Mapping from Handheld to Aerial Systems”
Andy Haefner, LBNL Applied Nuclear Physics Group
Thursday, November 3, 2016, 11:00 AM
“Partial Dynamical Symmetries and Rotation-Vibration Interactions” and
“Empirical Proton-neutron Interactions and the Onset of Deformation in Heavy Nuclei”
Prof. Rick F. Casten, Yale and MSU-FRIB
Thursday, December 15, 2016, 11:00 AM
“Cryogenic Gamma-ray Detectors with Ultra-High Energy Resolution”
Dr. Stephan Friedrich, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
2015 Forums
Thursday, July 2, 2015, 11:00 AM
“From Nuclear Chemistry to Nuclear Medicine: Positron Emitting Radiometals for Cancer Imaging”
Prof. Suzanne Lapi, Washington University in St. Louis
Thursday, July 9, 2015, 11:00 AM
“Protactinium: Chemistry at the Intersection of the 5f and 6d Elements”
Dr. Richard E. Wilson, Argonne National Laboratory
Thursday, July 30, 2015, 11:00 AM
“The Interplay of Chemistry and Physics at the Bottom of the Periodic Table”
Prof. Charles M. Folden III, Texas A&M University
Thursday, August 13, 2015, 10:30 AM
“From Nucleons to Nuclear Fission”
Dr. Walid Younes, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Thursday, August 27, 2015, 11:00 AM
“Test of Partial Dynamical Symmetries in Deformed Nuclei and Implications for Collective Models and Band Mixing”
Prof. Richard Casten, Yale University
Thursday, September 17, 2015, 11:00 AM
“Challenges in Radioanalytical Chemistry: Method Development for Post-Detonation Nuclear Forensics”
Prof. Ralf Sudowe, University of Nevada Las Vegas
Thursday, September 24, 2015, 11:00 AM
“Two-Neutron Sequential Decay of 24O”
Mr. Michael D. Jones, Michigan State University and NSCL
Thursday, October 1, 2015, 11:00 AM
“The Proton Radius — Old Measurements and New Ideas”
Prof. Guy Ron, Racah Institute of Physics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Thursday, October 8, 2015, 11:00 AM
“Neutron Scattering from Baghdad to Berkeley”
Dr. Lee Bernstein, UCB and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Thursday, October 22, 2015, 11:00 AM
“Pushing the boundaries of ab initio nuclear calculations using a symplectic approach”
Ms. Anna McCoy, University of Notre Dame
Tuesday, November 3, 2015, 11:00 AM
“Study on modified point contact germanium detectors for low background applications”
Mr. Marco Salathe, Max-Planck-Institut fur Kernphysik Heidelberg & Ruperto-Carola-University of Heidelberg
Thursday, November 5, 2015, 11:00 AM
“Strongly interacting nucleons: from few to many”
Prof. Alexandros Gezerlis, University of Guelph
Thursday, November 19, 2015, 11:00 AM
“New experiments for constraining (n,γ) reactions and the impact on r-process nucleosynthesis”
Prof. Artemis Spyrou, Michigan State University / NSCL
Friday, December 4, 2015, 11:00 AM
“Introduction to Therapeutic Medical Physics and Radiation Medicine”
Prof. Irena Dragojevic, University of California (San Diego)
