Don Lincoln (born 1964) is an American
physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe.
Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
, author, host of the YouTube channel Fermilab, and science communicator. He conducts research in
particle physics
Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) an ...
at
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located just outside Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics. Since 2007, Fermilab has been operat ...
, and was an
adjunct professor of physics at the
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...
, although he is no longer affiliated with the university. He received a Ph.D. in experimental particle physics from
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranked among the top universities ...
in 1994. In 1995, he was a co-discoverer of the
top quark
The top quark, sometimes also referred to as the truth quark, (symbol: t) is the most massive of all observed elementary particles. It derives its mass from its coupling to the Higgs Boson. This coupling y_ is very close to unity; in the Standard ...
. He has co-authored hundreds of research papers, and more recently, was a member of the team that discovered the
Higgs boson in 2012.
Publications
Lincoln is a public speaker, science writer, and has contributed many scientific articles to magazines that include ''
Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' in July 2009, ''
Scientific American
''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it ...
'' in November 2012, and July 2015, and ''
The Physics Teacher
''The Physics Teacher'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by AIP Publishing on behalf of the American Association of Physics Teachers covering the history and philosophy of physics, applied physics, physics education (curriculum dev ...
'' many times. He is also the author of books for the public about particle physics. His most recent book is 'Einstein's Unfinished Dream' (2023)
and it is published by Oxford University Press. His earlier books include 'Understanding the Universe: From Quarks to the Cosmos (Revised edition)' (2012), 'The Quantum Frontier: The Large Hadron Collider' (2009), and 'The Large Hadron Collider: The Extraordinary Story of the Higgs Boson and Other Things That Will Blow Your Mind' (2014). In 2013, he released a book called 'Alien Universe: Extraterrestrials in our Minds and in the Cosmos', which explains how the common images of extraterrestrials came to enter Western culture, and then goes on to explore what modern physics, chemistry, and biology can tell us about what real intelligent alien life might be like. He has been involved in a number of videos dedicated to disseminating discoveries in particle physics, and since July 7, 2011, has been a keynote speaker for a series produced by Fermilab that explores the range of issues dominating particle physics today in an accessible, and sometimes humorous way. Among the topics included in the series are the Higgs boson,
antimatter
In modern physics, antimatter is defined as matter composed of the antiparticles (or "partners") of the corresponding particles in "ordinary" matter. Antimatter occurs in natural processes like cosmic ray collisions and some types of radioac ...
, the nature of
neutrino
A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is a fermion (an elementary particle with spin of ) that interacts only via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass ...
s, the concepts of the
Big Bang,
cosmic inflation, the
multiverse,
leptogenesis, and
supersymmetry.
After years of being involved in research using the
DZero detector at the Fermilab
Tevatron
The Tevatron was a circular particle accelerator (active until 2011) in the United States, at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (also known as ''Fermilab''), east of Batavia, Illinois, and is the second highest energy particle collider ...
, he joined the
Compact Muon Solenoid
The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment is one of two large general-purpose particle physics detectors built on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland and France. The goal of the CMS experiment is to investigate a wide range ...
(CMS) experiment on the
Large Hadron Collider at
CERN,
Geneva
, neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier
, website = https://www.geneve.ch/
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...
,
Switzerland. Lincoln has co-authored more than 1500 CMS papers. His popularizations also include columns that translate CMS (monthly) and DZero (biweekly) physics measurements for the public. He is also the author of a recurring segment, ''Physics in a Nutshell'', in the Fermilab online newspaper, he blogs for the website of the television series ''
NOVA'', and he writes for ''
Live Science'', Big Think, and
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
. Additionally, he has created over 100 videos that translate particle physics and cosmology for a lay audience. In collaboration with
The Teaching Company
The Teaching Company, doing business as Wondrium, is a media production company that produces educational, video and audio content in the form of courses, documentaries, series under two content brands - Wondrium and The Great Courses. The comp ...
, he has released video courses that outlined the scientific community's modern understanding of a
theory of everything
A theory of everything (TOE or TOE/ToE), final theory, ultimate theory, unified field theory or master theory is a hypothetical, singular, all-encompassing, coherent theoretical framework of physics that fully explains and links together all asp ...
, common misconceptions of science, and why scientists believe some of the mind-boggling claims of modern physics.
Honors
Lincoln is a Fellow of the
American Physical Society, a Fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, and recipient of the 2013
European Physical Society
The European Physical Society (EPS) is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to promote physics and physicists in Europe through methods such as physics outreach. Formally established in 1968, its membership includes the national physical so ...
HEPP Outreach award “for communicating in multiple media the excitement of High Energy Physics to high-school students and teachers, and the public at large”. He also was awarded the 2017 American Institute of Physics Gemant Award for "cultural, artistic or humanistic contributions to physics for achievements in communication and public outreach".
References
External references
Don Lincolnat
Notre Dame
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lincoln, Don
21st-century American physicists
Living people
Rose–Hulman Institute of Technology alumni
Rice University alumni
University of Notre Dame faculty
Fermilab
1964 births
People associated with CERN
People associated with Fermilab
American YouTubers
Education-related YouTube channels
Fellows of the American Physical Society