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James Brown

  • Professor of Physics

Photo of Brown, James

Jim Brown has been at Wabash since 2003, and the college's unique environment  has allowed Prof. Brown to express his diverse interests in quality teaching, nuclear physics research, science policy, and science in society. Prof. Brown is an experimental physicist and studies extremely neutron-rich nuclei at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams with his collaborators in the MoNA collaboration. He regularly engages students in this research and students are frequent co-authors on MoNA-based publications. He enjoys using examples from his research in his courses.

Prof. Brown has a deep affinity for the liberal arts that was focused during his undergraduate years at Kalamazoo College. He has helped to create an all-college course for Freshmen, Enduring Questions, and has team-taught a course on Archeoastronomy of the Maya, with Profs. Rogers and Warner from the Spanish and History Departments respectively. Prof. Brown also has a keen interest in the impacts of science and society and how science can and should inform policy. Prof. Brown served as AAAS Science and Technology Fellow at the National Science Foundation during 2008/9.

Education

Ph.D. Physics, University of Michigan, 1993
B.A. Physics, Kalamazoo College, 1987

Recent Course Offerings

PHY 101 - Astronomy
PHY 111 – General Physics I
PHY 209 – General Physics III
PHY 210 – Modern Physics
PHY 220 – Electronics
PHY 230 – Thermal Physics
PHY 277 – The Physics of Nuclear 天下足球网,球探比分apons
PHY 278 – Astrophysics
PHY 310 – Classical Mechanics
PHY 314 – Electromagnetism
PHY 381/2 - Advenced Lab. I & II

Research

Most of my research is as part of the MoNA Collaboration. The group was formed in 2001 to construct and operate MoNA, (the Modular Neutron Array), a large-area high efficiency neutron detector housed at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, FRIB. The detector was designed and built by the collaboration which consists primarily of undergraduate institutions and Michigan State Universitiy. Working with NSCL and with support from the National Science Foundation the MoNA detector construction was completed in 2002. Most of the construction and testing was done by undergraduates.

The MoNA Collaboration continues to support undergraduates as significant participants in data taking and analysis on a variety of experiments. In addition with the help of undergraduates the Collaboration recently constructed a new detector - the Large muli-Institutional Scintillator Array (LISA) - used in conjunction with MoNA to explore nuclei along the neutron dripline. The core ten principal investigators come primarily from selective liberal arts colleges in the US, and the neutron detectors used were built by their undergraduates with $2.5M of NSF funding. Over the last two decades, more than two hundred students have been part of the collaboration, and 45% have gone on to do graduate work in physics or astronomy, 25% have done graduate work in engineering or other sciences, and 30% entered employment after graduation. Their contributions have been integral to over fifty peer-reviewed publications.

The collaboration is excited to have two proposals accepted by the first FRIB PAC! Please see our website for details.

Recent Presentations

  1. “MoNA needs from HRS” Michigan State University, HRS workshop July 2014
  2. “Recent results and prospects for Neutron Arrays – MoNA – LISA”, Argonne Nat. Lab., Low Energy Community, Aug. 17, 2012
  3. “Status and results from the MoNA Collaboration”, Michigan State University – Joint Working Group Aug. 19, 2011
  4. “Tell me MoNA where has the magic gone?”, DePauw University, November 2009
  5. “Assessment in IIP”. NSF, October 2009
  6. “What’s so magic about these numbers?”, Indiana State University, April 2007

Recent Publications

  1. “Neutron-unbound states in 31Ne ”,D.Chrisman, et al., Physical Review C 104 034313 (2021)
  2. “New segmented target for studies of neutron unbound systems ”, T. Redpath, et al., NUCLEAR INSTRUMENTS & METHODS IN PHYSICS RESEARCH SECTION A-ACCELERATORS SPECTROMETERS DETECTORS AND ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT 977
  3. “Low-lying level structure of the neutron-unbound N=7 isotones ”,D. Votaw, et al. Physical Review C 102(014325) (2020)
  4. “Neutron correlations in the decay of the first excited state of Li-11 ”,J.K. Smith, et al., Nuclear Physics A 955 , pp.27-40
  5. “ Population of Be-13 in a nucleon exchange reaction”, B.R. Marks, et al., Physical Review C (92.054320) (2015)
  6. “Unbound excited states of the N=16 closed shell nucleus 24O ”, W.F. Rogers et al., Physical Review C (92.034316) (2015)
  7. “Selctive population of unbound states in 10Li”, J.K. Smith, et al. Journal of Nuclear Physics A v940, pp235-41(2015) 04.011
  8. “Low-lying neutron unbound states in 12Be”, Smith, J.K., et al. Physical Review C, 024309, (2014)
  9. “Observation of a low-lying neutron-unbound state in 19C”,M. Thoennessen, et al. Nuclear Physics A 912 (2013) 1–6
  10. “Search for 21C and constraints on 22C”, S. Mosby, et al.  Nuclear Physics A 909 (2013) 69–78
  11. “Near-barrier fusion and total reaction of a proton-rich projectile: 3He+58Ni,” E. F. Aguilera, et al. Physical Review C 87, 014613 (2013)
  12.  “Exploring the Low-Z  Shore of the Island of Inversion at N  = 19”, G. Christian, et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 032501 (2012)
  13. “Search for the 15Be Ground State”, A. Spyrou, et al., Phys. Rev. C 84, 044309 (2011)
  14. “Neutron-unbound states in 25,26F” N.Frank, et al., Physical Review C 84, 03702 (2011)
  15. “Near Barrier Fusion of 8B+58Ni Proton-Halo System” E. F.Aguilera, et al., Physical Review Letters 107, 092701 (2011)
  16. “Observation of a two-neutron cascade from a resonance in 24O”, C. R. Hoffman, T. Baumann, J. Brown, P. A. DeYoung, J. E. Finck, N. Frank, J. Hinnefeld, S. Mosby, W. A. Peters, W. F. Rogers, A. Schiller, J. Snyder, A. Spyrou, S. L. Tabor, M. Thoennessen, Phys. Rev. C 83, 031303 (2011)
  17. “Neutron knockout of 12Be populating unbound states in 11Be” W. A. Peters, T. Baumann, B. A. Brown, J. Brown, P. A. DeYoung, J. E. Finck, N. Frank, K. L. Jones, J. L. Lecouey, B. Luther, G. F. Peaslee, W. F. Rogers, A. Schiller, M. Thoennessen, J. A. Tostevin, K. Yoneda, Phys. Rev. C 83, 031303 (2011)
  18. “First evidence for a virtual 18B ground state”, A. Spyrou, T. Baumann, D. Bazin, G. Blanchon, A. Bonaccorso, E. Breitbach, J. Brown, G. Christian, A. DeLine, P. A. DeYoung, J. E. Finck, N. Frank, S. Mosby, W. A. Peters, A. Russel, A. Schiller, M. J. Strongman, M. Thoennessen, Phys. Lett. B 683, 129 (2010)
  19. “First observation of excited states in 12Li” C. C. Hall, E. M. Lunderberg, P. A. DeYoung, T. Baumann, D. Bazin, G. Blanchon, A. Bonaccorso, E. Breitbach, B. A. Brown, J. Brown, G. Christian, D. H. Denby, J. Finck, N. Frank, A. Gade, J. Hinnefeld, C. R. Hoffman, B. Luther, S. Mosby, W. A. Peters, A. Spyrou, , M. Thoennessen, Phys. Rev. C 81, 021302 (2010)
  20. “Evidence for a doubly magic 24O”, C. R. Hoffman, T. Baumann, D. Bazin, J. Brown, G. Christian, D. H. Denby, P. A. DeYoung, J. E. Finck, N. Frank, J. Hinnefeld, S. Mosby, W. A. Peters, W. F . Rogers, A. Schiller, A. Spyrou, M. J. Scott, S. L. Tabor, M. Thoennessen, P. Voss, Phys. Lett. B 672, 17 (2009)
  21. “Disappearance of the N=14 shell”, M. J. Strongman, A. Spyrou, C. R. Hoffman, T. Baumann, D. Bazin, J. Brown, P. A. DeYoung, J. E. Finck, N. Frank, S. Mosby, , W. F. Rogers, A. Schiller, S. L. Tabor, M. Thoennessen, Phys. Rev. C 80, 021302 (2009) 

Honors & Awards

  1. McLain-McTurnan-Arnold Excellence in Teaching Award (2012)
  2. AAAS Science Policy Fellow at National Science Foundation (2008/9)
  3. Phi Beta Kappa (1987)
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