John Harris (physicist)
John William Harris is an American experimental high energy nuclear physicist and D. Allan Bromley Emeritus Professor in the Physics Department at Yale University. His research interests are focused on understanding high energy density QCD and the quark–gluon plasma created in relativistic collisions of heavy ions. Dr. Harris collaborated on the original proposal to initiate a high energy heavy-ion program at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, has been actively involved in the ALICE experiment in the heavy-ion program at the CERN LHC, and was the founding spokesperson for the STAR collaboration at RHIC at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the U.S.
Nuclear Physics Career
After obtaining a Bachelor of Science, with Distinction, from the University of Washington, John Harris started his career at the Stony Brook University, where he completed his Ph.D. in experimental nuclear physics in 1978.Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
After his Ph.D. Dr. Harris went to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, to conduct his post-doctoral work in high-energy nuclear physics from 1978 to 1979. After working as a senior guest scientist at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany, from 1980 to 1984, he returned to LBNL in 1984 and was appointed divisional fellow in the Nuclear Science Division. He became staff senior scientist in 1989 and served in this role until 1995. During his time at LBNL he was a collaborator in the NA35 experiment at CERN, spokesperson of the BEVALAC CCD-Streamer Chamber Experiments at LBL, CERN NA35 Project Leader in Nuclear Science Division at LBL, RHIC project leader in Nuclear Science Division at LBL and deputy program head of the Relativistic Nuclear Collisions Program. His most significant work from this period focused on compression effects in nucleus-nucleus collisions, the nuclear matter equation of state and pion production in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions, and on directed and elliptic flow in Pb+Pb collisions at the CERN SPS.Yale University
In 1996, Harris joined the faculty of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, as a tenured professor of physics. At Yale he served as director of the Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory, in the Yale Science Council, and in the inaugural Yale Faculty Senate. Harris has served in the physics department as director of graduate studies, director of undergraduate studies, associate physics department chair and director of postdoctoral affairs in physics.STAR Collaboration
The STAR collaboration, which is carrying out experiments at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, New York, was founded in 1991, and Harris served as its founding spokesperson from 1991 to 2002. He also served as the acting project manager from 1991 to 1992. At present, he is still a member of this collaboration. Among the most important discoveries by the STAR collaboration is the "perfect liquid" formed in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC.ALICE Collaboration
Dr. Harris joined the ALICE collaboration at the CERN Large Hadron Collider in 2006 and became the national coordinator for the ALICE-USA Collaboration. In ALICE he served on the Physics Board, Management Board, Collaboration Board. He serves as an elected board member of the ALICE Management Board.Service to the Nuclear Physics Community
- Associate Editor of Nuclear Physics, 1991–1995
- Member of the U.S. Nuclear Science Advisory Committee, 1993–1996
- Member of the US LHC Users Association Executive Committee, 2014-2015
- Chair of New RHIC Detector Inaugural Institutional Board, 2015
- Nuclear and Particle Physics Program Advisory Committee, Brookhaven National Laboratory, member 2014-2020, Chair 2016-2023
- Member of the organizing committees of the annual Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics, since 1992.
- Public science outreach activities