UCSB Physicist to Discuss Higgs Boson and Dark Matter at Chancellor's Breakfast

The observation of the long sought-after Higgs boson particle has attracted worldwide attention, and marks the beginning of a new era in physics. The existence of this particle confirms profound theoretical ideas for understanding some of the most basic properties of matter. It also leads to even more questions and possibilities for discovery, some of which could be related to the mysterious dark matter that is known to dominate the matter content of the universe.

Guests at a Chancellor's Community Breakfast, hosted by UC Santa Barbara Chancellor Henry T. Yang and the UCSB Affiliates, will hear physics professor Jeffrey Richman address some of those questions, as well as UCSB's role in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, where the Higgs boson particle was discovered. The CMS functions like a giant camera –– four stories tall –– that allows scientists to observe the processes that create matter from energy.

Richman's talk, "From the Big Bang to the Higgs Boson in Less Than an Hour," will begin at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday, November 8, at El Paseo Restaurant, 813 Anacapa St. The cost is $20. Reservations can be made by calling Kimberly Howorth at (805) 893-2877, or by sending a check –– payable to the UC Regents –– to the Office of Public Events, MC 1135 University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-1135.

A distinguished physicist, Richman is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

He serves on the Board of Directors of the Fermi Research Alliance, which manages Fermilab, and he has served on advisory committees at Fermilab, SLAC, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and for the Department of Energy. Richman joined the faculty of the UCSB Physics Department in 1988, after postdoctoral fellowships at CERN and Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. in 1985 from Caltech. At UCSB, he has taught physics at all levels, from introductory courses to advanced graduate courses on particle physics.

Related LinksUCSB Affiliates