[Interactions News Wire] #63-07 - Brookhaven Lab Physicist Receives Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers

Interactions News Wire #63-07
1 November 2007 http://www.interactions.org/
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Source: Brookhaven National Laboratory
Content: Press Release
Date Issued: 1 November 2007
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Brookhaven Lab Physicist Receives Presidential Early Career Award for
Scientists and Engineers

UPTON, NY -- Kyle Cranmer, a former Goldhaber Distinguished Fellow and a
current guest scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE)
Brookhaven National Laboratory was among 58 researchers honored in
Washington, DC, today as recipients of the prestigious Presidential Early
Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

Nine federal departments and agencies support the 58 honorees, and DOE's
Office of Science and its National Nuclear Security Administration
provided funding for the work of eight of the award recipients. The
Presidential Award is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on
outstanding scientists and engineers who are beginning their independent
careers. Each Presidential Award winner received a citation, a plaque, and
a commitment for continued funding of their work from their agency for
five years.

"These awards reflect our belief that the representatives of the new
generation of scientists and engineers honored today are meeting demanding
scientific and technical challenges with superior leadership, knowledge
and insight," Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman said. "I'm pleased to
recognize the extraordinary scientific and technical achievements
represented by the awardees' contributions."

Cranmer and three other DOE national laboratory scientists recognized
today also were honored with DOE's Office of Science Early Career
Scientist and Engineer Award.

Cranmer, who is currently an assistant professor of physics at New York
University, was recognized for his work on the ATLAS experiment, part of
the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the world's largest particle
physics center, located near Geneva, Switzerland. Cranmer's work involves
preparation for the search for the Higgs boson, the last unobserved
particle predicted by the standard model of particle physics. The Higgs
boson is believed to be the origin of mass for fundamental particles. He
first started searching for the Higgs boson as part of the ALEPH
Experiment at the Large Electron and Positron Collider at CERN, and will
continue his experimental studies at the ATLAS detector when the LHC,
currently under construction, is completed in 2008.

Cranmer specializes in advanced data analysis and statistical techniques,
which he believes are key to a robust discovery of new physics at the LHC.
"I am honored to receive the recognition and to have been nominated by
BNL. This award will enable me to further develop my research during a
very exciting time for particle physics," he said. "My work has focused on
the tools and strategies for data analysis. I'm also active in developing
the trigger, which is the system that selects which collisions to save in
the data. The trigger is a crucial component for the successful operation
of the ATLAS experiment."

Kyle Cranmer attended the charter class of the Arkansas School of
Mathematics, Sciences & the Arts in 1993. He earned a B.A. in physics and
mathematics in 1999 from Rice University, and an M.A. and Ph.D., both in
physics, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in 2002 and 2005,
respectively. In 1999, he won the Heaps Prize for Most Outstanding
Undergraduate Physics Thesis, and, in 2000, he won the Van Vleck Prize
from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was the recipient of a
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship from 2000-2003,
was a Massachusetts Institute of Technology Visiting Graduate Student
Fellow in 2004, and joined Brookhaven as a Goldhaber Distiguished Fellow
in 2005. In August 2007, took a faculty position at New York University,
while keeping his ties to Brookhaven as a guest scientist.

One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the
Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven
National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and
environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national
security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific
facilities available to university, industry and government researchers.
Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE's Office of Science by
Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by the
Research Foundation of State University of New York on behalf of Stony
Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and
Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization. Visit
Brookhaven Lab's electronic newsroom for links, news archives, graphics,
and more: http://www.bnl.gov/newsroom

NOTE TO LOCAL EDITORS: Kyle Cranmer, who recently moved to Manhattan, is a
former resident of Patchogue, NY.

Contact:
Diane Greenberg, 631 344-2347, greenb@bnl.gov, or
Mona S. Rowe, 631 344-5056, mrowe@bnl.gov

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