HMC PhysicsPhysics 52Physics 164

John S. Townsend

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Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University

Theoretical particle physics; quantum field theory.

My primary research interests have been in particle physics, although I have also done some work in nuclear arms control, an area that might be called public interest science. The Standard Model, which has been developed during the past decades, has been spectacularly successful in explaining the observed phenomena in electromagnetic, strong, and weak interactions at the particle-physics level. While there are still major unanswered questions (such as what is the quantum theory of gravity and how do we unify all the interactions together), these questions are extremely challenging ones. It is not unlikely that more experimental input will be necessary in order to make the next significant step forward. Unfortunately, the next advance in accelerator technology (the Large Hadron Collider at Cern) is still a number of years away. In the meantime, my interests have shifted toward issues surrounding the teaching of quantum mechanics, with a special interest in sorting out recent developments that might be potentially included in undergraduate textbooks at the Physics 52 and/or the Physics 116 level.
Mail Office Telephone
John S. Townsend
Department of Physics
Harvey Mudd College
301 E. 12th St.
Claremont, CA 91711-5990

townsend@hmc.edu

  • Office: Keck 1232
909-607-3281, Office
909-621-8024, Department
909-621-8887, Fax


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