William Joseph Marciano (born October 11, 1947) is an American theoretical physicist, specializing in elementary particle physics.

Education and career

Marciano graduated with a B.S. and an M.S. in physics at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. There he received in 1974 his doctorate with Alberto Sirlin as doctoral advisor. Marciano worked from 1974 to 1980 at

Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is a private biomedical research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and provides doctoral and postdoctoral education. It is classif ...

, where he started as a research associate and was then promoted to assistant professor. From 1980 to 1981 he was an associate professor at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

. At

Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, Long Island, and was formally established in 1947 at the site of Camp Upton, a former U.S. Army base and Japanese internment c ...

(BNL) he was in 1978 a research collaborator in 1978 and in 1981 joined the physics department and was granted tenure. At BNL he was promoted on 1986 to senior physicist and from 1987 to 1998 was the leader of the physics department's High-Energy Theory Group. He is currently at BNL a senior physicist and since 1990 has also been an adjunct professor at Yale University. He has served as an associate editor for ''

Physical Review Letters ''Physical Review Letters'' (''PRL''), established in 1958, is a peer-reviewed, scientific journal that is published 52 times per year by the American Physical Society. As also confirmed by various measurement standards, which include the ''Journa ...

'', ''

Physical Review D Physical may refer to: *Physical examination In a physical examination, medical examination, or clinical examination, a medical practitioner examines a patient for any possible medical signs or symptoms of a medical condition. It generally co ...

'', ''

Reviews of Modern Physics ''Reviews of Modern Physics'' (abbreviated RMP) is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Physical Society. It was established in 1929 and the current editor-in-chief is Michael Thoennessen. The journal publishes re ...

'', and the ''

Journal of High Energy Physics The ''Journal of High Energy Physics'' is a monthly peer-reviewed open access scientific journal covering the field of high energy physics. It is published by Springer Science+Business Media on behalf of the International School for Advanced Stu ...

''. With

Heinz Pagels Heinz Rudolf Pagels (February 19, 1939 – July 23, 1988) was an American physicist, an associate professor of physics at Rockefeller University, the executive director and chief executive officer of the New York Academy of Sciences, and president ...

he wrote a highly-cited review article on

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 ...

, published in ''Physics Reports'' in 1978. The research of Marciano and Sirlin was important for experiments at BNL for the precise determination of the

anomalous magnetic moment In quantum electrodynamics, the anomalous magnetic moment of a particle is a contribution of effects of quantum mechanics, expressed by Feynman diagrams with loops, to the magnetic moment of that particle. (The ''magnetic moment'', also called '' ...

of the

muon A muon ( ; from the Greek letter mu (μ) used to represent it) is an elementary particle similar to the electron, with an electric charge of −1 '' e'' and a spin of , but with a much greater mass. It is classified as a lepton. As wi ...

and the precise calculation of the masses of the W and Z bosons involved in electroweak interactions; such calculations are important for estimating the mass of the

Higgs boson The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the quantum excitation of the Higgs field, one of the fields in particle physics theory. In the Stand ...

. In neutrino physics, Marciano and his collaborators proposed novel neutrino experiments with very long transmission distances around 2500 km from the neutrino generation in accelerators to neutrino detectors in mines. Marciano became in 1986 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 ...

(search on year 1986 and institution Brookhaven National Laboratory) and received in 2001 an Alexander von Humboldt Award. In 2002 he received, jointly with Alberto Sirlin, the

Sakurai Prize The J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics, is presented by the American Physical Society at its annual April Meeting, and honors outstanding achievement in particle physics theory. The prize consists of a monetary award ($10,000 U ...

for "their pioneering work on radiative corrections, which made precision electroweak studies a powerful method of probing 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 ...

and searching for new physics."

Selected publications

* (over 1050 citations) * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marciano, William 1947 births Living people 20th-century American physicists 21st-century American physicists New York University alumni Rockefeller University faculty American people of Italian descent Theoretical physicists Particle physicists Brookhaven National Laboratory staff Scientists from New York (state) Fellows of the American Physical Society