Assistant Professor of Physics Wins Young Scholars Competition

By Kim McDonald I October 10, 2005

Brian Keating, assistant professor of physics at the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences

Brian Keating, assistant professor of physics at the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, won first place and $20,000 in the Young Scholars Competition at the "Amazing Light: Visions for Discover symposium this month at the University of California, Berkeley.

The competition at the conference honoring Nobel laureate Charles Townes' 90th birthday was intended to recognize young scientists from around the world with the potential to make such major breakthroughs as Townes' discovery of the laser.

Keating was selected for his essay and talk on a telescope that he and his colleagues are constructing at the U.S. South Pole Station, Antarctica. Beginning in December, the telescope will be used to search for primordial gravitational waves produced after the Big Bang and will test the theory of cosmological inflation. Judges for the competition included Townes, Nobel laureate Arno Penzias, planet-finder Geoff Marcy of UC Berkeley and Donald York of the University of Chicago.

More information on the conference and competition can be found at: http://www.foundationalquestions.net/townes/ysc/young_finalists.asp