Janet Conrad
Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Poland
Biography
Janet Conrad received her B.A. from Swarthmore College in 1985, M.Sc. from Oxford University in 1987, and Ph.D. from Harvard in 1993. She began as a postdoctoral associate at Columbia University and was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1996. Most recently, she was the Walter O. Lecroy Professor of Physics at Columbia University.
Research Interest
My work focuses on the lightest known matter particles, the neutrino. Their number far exceeds the atoms in the universe. Yet we know surprisingly little about these particles. It is only recently, for example, that we came to realize these particles have mass, albeit very tiny. This became clear when neutrinos were shown to live a double life, transforming from one type into another through the quantum mechanical effect of neutrino oscillations. This effect requires neutrino mass. Neutrino mass is the first "chink" in the surprisingly resilient theory of particle physics called The Standard Model. The purpose of my research is to exploit this opportunity through further study of neutrinos. Now that we know that neutrinos have surprising new properties, I am involved in tests to see if they have more unexpected "features".
