Biographical Sketch:
John Harris is an experimental high energy nuclear physicist and the D. Allan Bromley Professor Emeritus in the Yale Physics Department. His research focuses on understanding high energy density quantum chromodynamics (QCD) created in relativistic collisions of heavy nuclei.
At Yale, Harris served as director of the Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory (2008–2010), in the Yale Science Council (2005–2015, as chair 2008–2015), and in the inaugural Yale Faculty Senate (2015–2017). Harris served in the Physics Department as Director of Graduate Studies (1998–1999), Director of Undergraduate Studies (2013-2016), Associate Physics Department Chair (2016–2019), and Director of Postdoctoral Affairs in Physics (2007–2020).
Previous to joining the Yale Physics faculty in 1996, Harris was a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).
Harris received his Ph.D. in nuclear physics form the State University of New York at Stony Brook (now Stony Brook University) and his B.S., with distinction, from the University of Washington.
Harris was the founding spokesperson for the STAR (Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC) Experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) from 1991 until 2002. He has also served as the National Coordinator for the ALICE-USA Collaboration, Chair and Deputy Chair of the ALICE Collaboration Board and on other boards in ALICE (e.g. Physics Board).
Prof. Harris has served on and chaired many conference and workshop organizing committees, as well as Yale University committees. Harris has been a member of the Yale Science Council since 2006, and its Chair since 2008. He is a member of the International Scientific Advisory Board for Romania and is the Chair of the Nuclear and Particle Physics Program Advisory Committee for BNL.
In addition, Harris has organized and been a panelist for “Science Happy Hour at BAR” for public outreach.
Research:
John Harris’ research focuses on understanding high energy density Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) created in relativistic collisions of heavy nuclei. A particular focus is the use of hard scattering processes to identify the properties of the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP) utilizing heavy ions. Harris is also currently contributing to the design of a comprehensive experiment for the forthcoming Electron Ion Collider (EIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in Long Island, New York.
Prof. Harris was involved in the original proposal to initiate a nucleus-nucleus experimental program at CERN to search for a possible QGP phase transition, and has been an active member in the planning, conceptual design, construction, data acquisition and physics of ultrarelativistic nucleus-nucleus experiments NA35 and NA49 at CERN, and the STAR experiment at BNL. He is currently involved in the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN and the EIC at BNL.
Education:
Ph.D., SUNY Stony Brook, 1978
Honors & Awards:
John Harris is an American Physical Society (APS) Fellow. He was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Research Award in Frankfurt and was named one of the Top 40 Distinguished Alumni by Stony Brook University. In 2007, Harris presented the Robert Hofstadter Endowed Lectures at Stanford.
Selected Publications:
- Authored and Edited Books
- Discoveries at the Frontiers of Science: From Nuclear Astrophysics to Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions, Chapter 20, A Confluence of Ideas and Experiments—A Tribute to Professor Walter Greiner, John W. Harris, Springer Nature Publishing, Switzerland, eds. J. Kirsch et al. (2020), pp 285-301. DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-34234-0_20; ISBN 978-3-030-34233-3 ISBN 978-3-030-34234-0 (eBook)
- The Large Hadron Collider: Harvest of Run 1, Chapter 9, Heavy-Ion Physics at the LHC, Ralf Averbeck, John W. Harris and Björn Schenke, Springer International Publishing, Switzerland, ed. Thomas Schörner-Sadenius (2015) pp 355-420. DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-15001-7_9; Print ISBN 978-3-319-15000-0; Online ISBN 978-3-319-15001-7.
- Quark Matter 2012, Proceedings of the XXIII International Conference on Ultrarelativistic Nucleus‒Nucleus Collisions, Washington D.C. USA, 13–18 August 2012, Ed. Thomas Ullrich, Bolek Wysłouch and John W. Harris, Elsevier, Amsterdam (2013).
- Structure and Dynamics of Elementary Matter, Chapter 1, Creating Bulk QCD Matter at RHIC, Kluwer Academic Publishers, eds. W. Greiner et al. (2004) pp. 1–18. DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020- John W. Harris, 2705-5; ISBN 978-1-4020-2446-7 ISBN 978-1-4020-2705-5 (eBook).
- Proceedings of the 18th Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics, Ed. R. Bellwied, J. Harris, R. Bellwied and W. Bauer, EP Systema, Debrecen, Hungary (2002).
- Handbook of Physics, W. Benenson, John W. Harris and H. Stocker, Springer – NY (2002).
- Handbook of Mathematics and Computational Science, John W. Harris and H. Stocker, Springer, NY (1998).
- Proceedings of the 10th Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics, John W. Harris, A. Mignerey and W. Bauer, World Scientific, Singapore (1994).
- Quark Matter ‘95. Proceedings, 11th International Conference on Ultrarelativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions, Monterey, CA, USA, January 9–13, 1995., Ed. Arthur M. Poskanzer, J.W. Harris, L.S. Schroeder, LBL, Elsevier, Amsterdam (1995).
- Proceedings of the 9th Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics, John W. Harris, B. Back and W. Bauer, World Scientific, Singapore (1993).
- Publications with More than 2000 Citations
- Experimental and Theoretical Challenges in the Search for the Quark-Gluon Plasma: The STAR Collaboration’s Critical Assessment , J. Adams et al, (STAR), Nuc. Phys. A 757, Vol. 1-2 (2005) 102.
- The ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC, K. Aamodt et al. (ALICE), Journal of Instrumentation 3 (08), S08002.
- Long-range Angular Correlations on the Near and Away Side in p–Pb Collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV, B. Abelev, et al. (ALICE), Phys. Lett. B 719 (1), 29.
- Evidence from d+Au Measurements for Final-State Suppression of High PT Hadrons in Au+Au Collisions at RHIC, J. Adams et al. (STAR), Phys. Rev. Lett. 91 (2003) 072304.
- Google Scholar publications
