(aka raymond brock)
professor of physics & chairperson
department of physics and astronomy
michigan state university
east lansing, michigan 48824
| coordinates (how to reach me) |
All my life I've been "Chip", although my driver's license says "Raymond". Before you ask, nobody claims to know where this started and I gave up years ago trying to patiently explain. Please note before being really proud of yourself: "Chip off the old Brock" is not new, it's not funny anymore, and all of you think you were the first to invent it...
Here is an example of the kind of pressure that sometimes face...
I am engaged in elementary particle physics research, which is the study of the "inside of the universe", the fundamental building blocks of nature. I and my colleagues perform experiments of long duration and considerable heft at the highest energy particle accelerators in the world.
Current Collaborations:
experimental physics: the DO experiment at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia Illinois. My current project is the simulation of the L1_CAL trigger for the D0 experiment with my student, Josh Kalk.
- my MSU colleagues: students (Freddie Landry and Josh Kalk); post doctoral researchers (Dylan Casey, Beatriz Gonzales-Pineiro, Roger Moore, and Dugan O'Neil); staff (Dan Edmunds and Philippe Laurens); and faculty (Maris Abolins, Bernard Pope, Jim Linnemann, and Harry Weerts)
experimental physics: the Atlas Experiment at CERN in Geneva, Switerland. There I am the convenor of the Electroweak Top Quark Production subgroup of physicists from the US, Canada, Russia, and CERN.
- my MSU colleagues: post doctoral researchers (Beatriz Gonzales-Pineiro, and Dugan O'Neil); staff (Dan Edmunds); and faculty (Maris Abolins and Bernard Pope)
joint theoretical-experimental research in the physics of quantum chromodynamics through the unique MSU-based national program, CTEQ.
- my MSU colleagues: student (Josh Kalk); post doctoral researchers (Dylan Casey); and faculty (WuKi Tung, Joey Huston, CP Yuan, Dan Stump, and Jon Pumplin)
Current Projects:
co-convenor of the Precision Measurements Working Group of the QCD and Weak Boson Workshop at Fermilab.
resummation of soft gluon emission in Drell Yan processes...particularly, the pedagogy for experimenters...in progress. Based on lectures at the 1st & 4th CTEQ Summer School for Young Physicists, Lake Monroe, IN.
a web history of elementary particle physics: "The Inside of the Universe"...in progress. A flat-file example of a typical page...xrays and a flat version of the "instructions " to the site.
web summary of current fermilab collider results...in progress.
| talks | selected publications |
transparencies from an MSU Physics and Astronomy colloquium which I gave in May of 1996, "Weighing the Weak Force" (pdf)
transparencies from a colloquium at Vanderbilt University in April of 1999, "Millennial Physics at the Fermilab Collider" (pdf)
transparencies from an invited summary talk at the 1998 Fermiab Users Meeting, "Collider Physics in Run II and Beyond" (pdf)
conference Proceedings from the plenary talk on quantum chromodynamics (QCD) at the 1996 International Conference on High Energy Physics in Warsaw, Poland. (pdf)
| coordinates (how to reach me) |
i have been a member of the Physics and Astronomy faculty since 1982. I have taught at all levels, concentrating on the large lecture courses for engineers and the graduate level Relativistic Quantum Field Theory course for second year graduate students.
i love teaching, and I am especially proud to have been only the second member of the faculty to have been awarded the MSU Teacher Scholar Award in 1984 and to have been voted as the Best Graduate Instructor by the graduate students in 1994.
while previously unable to teach while chairman, during the 1999-2000 academic year I taught the second year graduate sequence in Relativistic Quantum Field Theory. The web pages for this course are still available.
my
curriculum vitae (pdf)
my curriculum
vitae [brief] (html)
| coordinates (how to reach me) |
the SOAR telescope is a significant effort on behalf of our astronomy group. This is a world-class 4m optical-IR telescope currently being constructed on Cerro Pachon, high in the Chilean Andes mountains. The consortium which is constructing this instrument consists of MSU, The University of North Carolina, NOAO, and the nation of Brazil.
the construction of a new building for the PA Department has been the culmination of nearly decades of effort. We now have begun this major initiative in partnership with the Departments of Microbiology and Physiology.
departmental organization...
in order to memorialize departmental customs and publicize my own policies, I've created a literature of Chair Policy Statements. These are reviewed annually by the departmental advisory committee and I seriously consider suggestions from them. They will "live" as long as I am Chairperson, and go out of existence when I come to my senses and go back to being a professor. They are:
- Departmental secretarial support.
- Departmental support for travel by unsupported faculty.
- Implications of the use of departmental funds for matching.
- Dispersion of salary recovery from sabbatical or paid faculty leaves.
- Annual review of untenured faculty.
- Departmental administrative structure
- Faculty leaves.
- Classroom absence.
- Department workload policy.
in addition, I reorganized the adminstrative structure of the Department in order to significantly enhance the computer services offerred to our faculty, staff, and students. The reorganization included budgetary responsibility and planning under a group of associate chairpersons. They govern the day-to-day operations:
-
Associate Chairperson for Operations [Professor Bernard Pope] Computer Operations, Space, Awards
- Associate Chairperson for Astronomy [Professor Eugene Capriotti] Astronomy academic program, SOAR telescope operations
-
Associate Chairperson for Undergraduate Programs [Professor Wolfgang Bauer] Undergraduate curriculum, Undergraduate Program Committee (budget and program)
-
Associate Chairperson for Graduate Programs [Professor Phillip Duxbury] Gradute curriculum, graduate examinations, Graduate Program Committee (budget, TA's, recruiting)
departmental future...
In December of 1998, we held a retreat to discuss the next 5 years for the Department of Physics and Astronomy. The result is a Departmental Plan which is available on the web and will be updated with future adjustments to our vision of the future of physics and astronomy at michigan state.
| coordinates (how to reach me) |
I have had a variety of assignments within the professional high energy physics community and the american physical society.
- 1980-1981 initiator of the Arms Control and Disarmament Series with Leon Lederman while a Fermilab Post Doc. Joe Lach and I were the only physicist members of the Physicians for Social Responsibility at Rush Memorial Hospital..giving many talks in Illinois and Indiana on the physics of nuclear weapons and their effects.
- 1987-1990 member of the Fermilab Users Executive Committee, and Chairman of that organization, 1989-1990.
- 1988 member of the Fermilab Director Search Committee.
- 1990-1995 member of the Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee.
- 1991-1994 special Assistant to the Fermilab Director.
- 1994-1996 co-organizer (with Dan Amidei at the University of Michigan) and editor of the tev_2000 workshop on High pt Physics at the Tevatron.
- 1998-present member of the Fermilab Users Executive Committee...again.
in the US high energy community at large...
- 1990-1995 member of the Los Alamos LAMPF facility Program Advisory Committee.
- 1994 member of the American Physical Society Division of Particles and Fields "CLTP" (Committee on Long Term Planning)
- 1997 consultant to the DOE in its annual review of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC)
- 1997-1998 member of the Panofsky Prize Nominating Committee for the Division of Particles and Fields of the American Physical Society
- 1998 member of the American Physical Society Task Force on Academic Tenure
| coordinates (how to reach me) |
...well, mostly sane.
My family is most important to me. I'm the father of a son, Terry (18) a daughter, Kimberly (13). (I'm the one in the middle.) I've been married to Janet Peterkin for 28 years - although, she'll tell you that I've only been home for half of that time. I try hard to make my time with them count.
My son has turned into a tall, clever productive young man. He manages to live in a variety of communities within the large and specialized East Lansing High School where he's a senior. In schoolwork, he's a National Honor Society student, this year taking AP calculus, AP biology, expository writing, and government. In musical endeavors, he has successfully competed for a spot on the ELHS "varsity" singing ensemble, "EL Singers". He's also becoming an acomplished jazz vocal soloist, having studied privately for two years. He's now regularly featured as such in concerts. This started with his roll as Pippin in the musical by that name produced in East Lansing last year. In the midst of this, he now sells clothing at the Meridian Mall.
In the spring, his attention turns to baseball where he has done well. He started at first base on the ELHS JV team as a freshman and sophomore, and was the starter on the varsity team last year. His play is terrific, at the plate, as a smart runner, and especially at first where he has a fielding average in the high .990's.
Each
April ELHS baseball players and coaches go to Florida for pre-season training.
Here's a picture of Terry at 1st and me at 2nd in a scrimmage
from three years ago. I've enjoyed the baseball journey with Terry and
have enjoyed my association with the high school as a JV assistant coach
and as a coach of the (essentially) varsity team during the summers. I
suspect that's all over now.
Kimbery...
Kimberly has become comfortable in the classroom the last couple of years and is in 8th grade this year taking a full load, including a bit of an advancement in algebra. Her mathematics skills have started to show through and I'm confident that she'll progress quickly in that area. She plays violin in the orchestra.
Kimberly's
persistence at gymnastics has begun to pay off. After a year in the "Junior
Trainer" program at her gym, Eastside Gymnastics", she has been
competing in lower Michigan gymnastics at level 5 and this year, level
6. Here's a picture of her in her first year 
.
As far as her mother and I are concerned, she's been doing amazing things
on the ground and in the air for a while now and this will get more exciting
as time goes on. It's great to see her being successful at something that
she's carved out for herself, all by herself. Her best event continues
to be the beam, in which she recently medalled in Detroit, along with
her floor exercise. Already, the girls in this program are at high school
level skills and I think Kim's future is assurred for a high school sport,
as ELHS maintains a varsity gymnastics program.
Janet...
After 15 years away from the classroom, Janet decided to re-certify and took the state exams with all of the hundreds of newly graduated college seniors...and did great. I was impressed - I don't take exams any more, I give 'em and am glad of it. She then quit her job at the Child Development Lab at MSU and became asubstitute teacher for a couple of years. To her surprise, she was constantly asked for by name into classrooms where she had been as the kids and the teachers like her work. She ended up being pleasantly surprised at her comfort after all this time, and also pleased to find substituting a pleasant job. (I could do without the 6AM calls...) This year she's in a classroom part time as a regulation teacher in the school that our kids both attended.
Chip...
I play racquetball regularly but no longer play baseball, after three ACL surgeries – until last summer when I started playing in an over-30 league in the city. I found that I'd not forgotten how to hit – had 2 home runs – but I have forgotten how to run. A few years ago I started Terry on golf and began playing that game again after a 15 year lay-off. (He subsequently played on the JV high school golf team.) Time to start Kim...
I was an ELHS assistant baseball coach for two years and have coached this HS team during the summers, where we've done well. My coaching years are probably coming to an end with Terry's graduation, but I've enjoyed a half-dozen years as coach in East Lansing with many trophies to show for our talented class. ELHS has become a baseball school with first place finishes in the CAC conference the last two years (although this year will likely be second, behind the nationally ranked Grand Ledge - who we split with). This period has helped me to retain my sanity with my other jobs and led me into a circle of good friends and colleagues similarly bitten by this great game – Dennis Petrowich, Gary Croskey, Ed Outslay, Randy Hackney, and Mark Pendred.
I'm an avid Chicago Cubs fan, and have been having fun with the new Lansing Class A Cubs minor league franchise (the Lugnuts), as well as the Spartan's baseball seasons.
Mostly,
I try to remain active in my research, keep my department out of trouble
and moving forward, and stay as connected to my family as much as possible
while we're still all together.
| coordinates (how to reach me) |
TELEPHONE
- Department office: (517)353-8662
- [My terrific secretary is Ms. Lisa Ruess - she'll find me.]
- HEP office: (517)353-1693
- Fermilab office: (630)840-8795
- cell phone: (517)927-5447
FAX
- At the department office: (517)353-4500
- In the MSU HEP group office: (517)355-6661
- At Fermilab: (630)840-8886
PAGE
- call Lisa and she'll do it...
- or: call 800-946-4646 and then use PIN 8019 609
US MAIL
Prof. Raymond Brock207 Physics and Astronomy Building
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
DRIVING or WALKING
- A highway map of the Lansing-East Lansing area, including the Capital City Airport (Lansing).
- A map of campus, showing the locations of the Physics and Astronomy Building, the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, the Abrams Planetarium, and the MSU