Stephen Parke (born 1950) is a
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
physicist. He is a Distinguished Scientist and former Head of the Theoretical Physics Department at the
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 ...
(
Batavia, Illinois
Batavia () is a city mainly in Kane County and partly in DuPage County in the U.S. state of Illinois. Located in the Chicago metropolitan area, it was founded in 1833 and is the oldest city in Kane County. Per the 2020 census, the population w ...
).
[Rutherford explanation this week]
. University of Canterbury. 26 May 2008.
Born in
Gisborne, New Zealand
Gisborne ( mi, Tūranga-nui-a-Kiwa "Great standing place of Kiwa") is a city in northeastern New Zealand and the largest settlement in the Gisborne District (or Gisborne Region). It has a population of The district council has its headquarter ...
, Parke attended
Edmund Campion College, Gisborne and
St Peter's College, Auckland
St Peter's College ( mi, Te Kura Teitei o Hāto Petera) is a Catholic church, Catholic secondary school single-sex education, for boys in the Edmund Ignatius Rice, Edmund Rice tradition, and dedicated to St Peter. it is located in the Auckland CBD ...
and the
University of Auckland
, mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work
, established = 1883; years ago
, endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021)
, budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021)
, chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant
, vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...
in New Zealand. He was a graduate student of
Sidney Coleman
Sidney Richard Coleman (7 March 1937 – 18 November 2007) was an American theoretical physics, theoretical physicist noted for his research in high-energy theoretical physics.
Life and work
Sidney Coleman grew up on the Far North Side o ...
at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, obtaining a PhD in theoretical particle physics. He held a postdoctoral fellowship at the
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
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. Departme ...
(1980–1983) before moving to the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.
Field of work
He is an originator of
Parke–Taylor amplitudes, which represent a new approach to computing scattering amplitudes in
quantum chromodynamics
In theoretical physics, quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is the theory of the strong interaction between quarks mediated by gluons. Quarks are fundamental particles that make up composite hadrons such as the proton, neutron and pion. QCD is a type ...
using symmetry methods such as
supersymmetry
In a supersymmetric theory the equations for force and the equations for matter are identical. In theoretical and mathematical physics, any theory with this property has the principle of supersymmetry (SUSY). Dozens of supersymmetric theories e ...
. Parke is also an expert on
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 ...
physics as well as the physics 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 ...
.
See also
*
List of alumni of St Peter's College, Auckland for more biographical details
References
External links
* Parke's scientific publications are available on the
INSPIRE-HEP INSPIRE-HEP is an open access digital library for the field of high energy physics (HEP). It is the successor of the Stanford Physics Information Retrieval System (SPIRES) database, the main literature database for high energy physics since the 1970 ...
Literature Databas
HEPNames profile: Stephen ParkeStephen Parke at Fermilab Theoretical Physics Department
Particle physicists
Neutrino physicists
21st-century American physicists
Harvard University alumni
American people of New Zealand descent
New Zealand scientists
New Zealand physicists
University of Auckland alumni
People from Gisborne, New Zealand
1950 births
Living people
People educated at St Peter's College, Auckland
Fellows of the American Physical Society
Theoretical physicists
People associated with Fermilab
People educated at Campion College, Gisborne
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