Symmetry in Nature and in the Laws of Nature
Faculty Biographies
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![]() While her original research specialty is number theory and algebraic dynamics, Professor Goldstine has become increasingly focused on the intersection of mathematics and the arts. She has constructed numerous tactile and visual mathematical models employing such diverse media as yarn, fabric, thread, beads, paper, steel wire, copper tubes, pinecones and pottery, though not all at once. Her own artwork, as well as joint artwork with Alison Frane ’94, Ellie Baker, and Sophie Sommer, has been presented in papers in Math Horizons and the Journal of Mathematics and the Arts and displayed in the juried art exhibitions at the national Joint Mathematics Meetings and the international Bridges Conference. Professor Goldstine is also an avid cook, and while she usually pursues non-mathematical cookery, she hopes one day to reproduce the interlocking Escher swan cookies she made for a lark as an undergraduate. In her current department, she strives to maintain her reputation for having the office with the most toys. |
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![]() Kannan "Jagu" Jagannathan, the Bruce B. Benson ’43 and Lucy Wilson Benson Professor of Physics, received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Rochester in 1981 and has been on the faculty at Amherst since that time. His primary area of research is high energy theory. He has worked on the weak interactions of heavy quarks in the Standard Model. He has also been interested in other areas of theoretical physics such as general relativity and foundations of quantum mechanics, and has supervised undergraduate thesis projects in these areas. He served a term as the assistant editor of the American Journal of Physics, and has been interested in expository writing on physics. |
Carolyn Johnson ’02 is the lead science writer at The Boston Globe. She also has covered telecommunications and tech culture for the Business section. Johnson was a physics and English major at Amherst College and earned her master’s degree in science writing from MIT. |
![]() William A. Loinaz, associate professor of physics, received his BSE from Princeton University in 1989 and his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Michigan in 1995. His primary area of research is in theoretical elementary particle physics. He has worked on various aspects of Standard Model and beyond the Standard Model physics, with particular attention to neutrino physics, electroweak symmetry breaking, and QCD. He uses experimental data to constrain candidates for physics beyond the Standard Model, and lately he has been collaborating with experimentalists to design new neutrino physics experiments. |
Elizabeth Petrik ’08 received her master’s degree from Harvard University in 2011, and is currently working on her PhD. The experiment she is working on is being performed by the ACME Collaboration. Her research adviser is Prof. John Doyle at Harvard, and the other PIs of the collaboration are Prof. Gerald Gabrielse at Harvard and Prof. David DeMille at Yale. |