Charles Young Prescott (born 14 December 1938 in Ponca City, Oklahoma) is an American particle physicist. Prescott received in 1961 from

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

his bachelor's degree and in 1966 from

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

his Ph.D. under Robert Lee Walker (1919–2005) with thesis ''Eta meson photoproduction in the region of the third nucleon resonance''. From 1966 to 1970 he was a research scientist at Caltech's Synchrotron Laboratory. In 1970/71 he was an assistant professor at the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California syste ...

. At the

Stanford Linear Accelerator SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a United States Department of Energy National Laboratory operated by Stanford University under the programmatic direction of the U.S. Departm ...

(SLAC), he was in 1971–1980 a staff member, in 1980–1984 an associate professor, and in 1984–2006 a full professor, retiring as professor emeritus in 2006. At SLAC he was also Associate Director of the research division in 1986–1991. In the 1970s Prescott investigated deep inelastic scattering of polarized electrons and was part of the team that observed

parity violation In physics, a parity transformation (also called parity inversion) is the flip in the sign of ''one'' spatial coordinate. In three dimensions, it can also refer to the simultaneous flip in the sign of all three spatial coordinates (a point refle ...

. These experiments confirmed the theory of the electroweak interactions in the

Standard Model The Standard Model of particle physics is the theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (electromagnetism, electromagnetic, weak interaction, weak and strong interactions - excluding gravity) in the universe and classifying a ...

of particle physics. He also did research using polarized electron beams to examine the spin structure of nucleons. In 1980 Prescott proposed adding polarized beams to the SLC ( Stanford Linear Collider) project. This was the first time polarization was discussed as part of the program of Z physics at e⁺e^– colliders. Polarized beams became an important part of the SLC program from 1992 to 1998. In 1982 he helped in starting the SLD project and participated in the project until it ended in 1998. From 1995 to 2000 he served as the Chairperson of the International Spin Physics Symposia. He was head of a SLAC research group (Group A) from 1991 until his retirement in 2006. In the 2000s he was part of the science team (including Martin Breidenbach) for SLAC's EXO (

Enriched Xenon Observatory The Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO) is a particle physics experiment searching for neutrinoless double beta decay of xenon-136 at WIPP near Carlsbad, New Mexico, U.S. Neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) detection would prove the Majorana ...

) experiment to search for neutrino-less double beta decay. Prescott also participated in studies for the design and implementation of future linear accelerators. In 1988 he received the Panofsky Prize. In 1997 he was elected a Fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

.APS Physic , DPF , APS Fellowship for 1997
/ref> In 2001 he was elected a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

Selected publications

* Prescott
Summary and outlook on the future, SLAC – PUB – 4435, September 1987
Invited talk presented at the Seventh International Conference on Physics in Collision, Tsukuba, Japan, August 25–27, 1987] * Prescott
An Overview of Spin Physics
1991 * Prescott
''Weak electromagnetic interference in electron deuteron scattering.''
In: Lillian Hoddeson, Laurie Brown, Michael Riordan, Max Dresden (eds.): ''The rise of the standard model.'' Cambridge University Press, 1997.

References

External links

Particle PPA Emeriti Bios , Particle Physics & Astrophysics Faculty
at SLAC
Searching for the neutrino's identity
by Matthew Early Wright, 2005 (information on the EXO experiment) {{DEFAULTSORT:Prescott, Charles Y. 21st-century American physicists Rice University alumni California Institute of Technology alumni Stanford University alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the American Physical Society 1938 births Living people People from Ponca City, Oklahoma Winners of the Panofsky Prize