Lincoln, Don 1964-

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Lincoln, Don 1964-

PERSONAL:

Born 1964. Education: Rice University, Ph.D., 1993.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, P.O. Box 500, Batavia, IL 60510-5011. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Physicist, educator, and author. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, former research fellow; Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, IL, associate scientist and experimental physicist, 1998—; has worked as an adjunct professor at a community college and a liberal arts university, and as a faculty consultant and test question contributor for the Advanced Placement exam in physics.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Lodieska Stockbridge Vaughn Fellow, Rice University.

WRITINGS:

Understanding the Universe: From Quarks to the Cosmos, World Scientific (Hackensack, NJ), 2004.

Contributor to periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Don Lincoln is an experimental physicist and senior scientist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, also known as Fermilab. His work focuses on high-energy physics, and he has long been associated with the DÆ project, which is a facility—one of two in the world—where high-energy research is conducted. His research pushes the boundaries of energies that can be attained by modern equipment. Lincoln is an accomplished lecturer and public speaker who has given presentations throughout the world. He is also active with Fermilab's Education and Public Outreach program, providing information on science and research to interested members of the general public.

In his Understanding the Universe: From Quarks to the Cosmos, Lincoln presents a wide-ranging tour of the universe from the perspective of a theoretical physicist and directed toward an interested non-specialist audience. He explores in depth the surrounding universe and what "particle physicists understand about it, how we arrived at that understanding, and where we think we're going next with our research," commented Kate Scholberg in an American Scientist review. Lincoln traces the development of particle physics from the early twentieth century, when a complacent scientific establishment was moved to renewed research by such discoveries as X-rays, cathode rays, and radioactivity, to modern particle physics, in which accelerators the size of towns and sensors the size of buildings are used to detect the smallest particles in existence. He explains how these sophisticated instruments are "designed to observe colliding particles traveling at tremendous velocities in order to reveal the essential elements of their composition and interactions," Scholberg stated, adding: "Lincoln does a first-class job of explaining just how these fundamental properties emerge from the experimental results."

Lincoln looks at some of the questions that are guiding modern physicists and researchers. For example, he describes neutrinos, thought for years to be particles with no mass, but which have been discovered to have very small masses. He addresses the question of antimatter, and why so little of it exists in the universe; he also writes on topics such as supersymmetry, which is the idea that every particle in the universe has a corresponding massive particle with different spin force; the possible existence of dimensions beyond the familiar three; cosmology, which is the study of the origin and evolution of the universe; and the concept of string theory, which suggests that the known universe is constructed of large moving "strings" of energy and matter. "In his epilogue Lincoln addresses explicitly the question of why particle physicists ask why. That why is what really animates this book, just as it animates those engaged in research," Scholberg remarked. Lincoln provides readers with an "appreciation of the investigative procedure, the accumulated body of research, and the people" who dedicated their lives and careers to the search for scientific understanding, commented Margaret F. Dominy in Library Journal.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Scientist, January 1, 2005, Kate Scholberg, "Tiny Particles, Big Questions," review of Understanding the Universe: From Quarks to the Cosmos, p. 80.

Choice, July 1, 2005, E. Kinacanon, review of Understanding the Universe, p. 2024.

Library Journal, August, 2004, Margaret F. Dominy, review of Understanding the Universe, p. 113.

Publishers Weekly, April 19, 2004, review of Understanding the Universe, p. 55.

SciTech Book News, December, 2004, review of Understanding the Universe, p. 52.