SBU Physicist Elected to National Academy of Sciences

Barbara Jacak

Stony Brook, N.Y. – Barbara Jacak, Distinguished Professor of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Jacak was elected based on her study of nuclear matter at high temperature and density using heavy ion collisions, as well as her leadership of the PHENIX Project at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Election to the National Academy of Sciences is very prestigious. Membership is one of the highest honors that can be accorded to a scientist and recognizes scientists who have made distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. As of 2009, there are approximately 2,100 members and 380 foreign associates, and just under 200 members have won Nobel Prizes. The Academy was created by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 to both promote science and conduct research that the government finds necessary.

Professor Jacak’s research focuses on heavy ion collisions at high temperature, which give clues about the nature of the universe at its conception. Typically, gold ions are used in such experiments because its nucleus is densely packed with particles, and when the ions collide at relativistic speeds (close to the speed of light), conditions are created that are ideal for physicists to understand the early universe and other basic properties of nature.

Dr. Jacak is the current leader and spokesperson for the PHENIX (Pioneering High Energy Nuclear Interaction eXperiment) detector, one of four experiments taking place at the RHIC (Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider) at Brookhaven National Lab.  The primary goal of PHENIX is to study a new state of matter called the Quark-Gluon Plasma which was discovered by the group at PHENIX. The discovery was named the top Physics story of 2005 by the American Institute of Physics.

Professor Jacak received her Ph.D. in 1984 from Michigan State University. She has been a faculty member in the Department of Physics since 1997, and was named SUNY Distinguished Professor in 2008.