The J/Psi meson is a bit of an unusual thing in the

physics world and understanding how it works could influence

physics.

“It’s a very important piece for understanding a very

complicated puzzle,” said John Lajoie, a professor in the

department of physics and astronomy.

“We want to figure out how they are created, and how

they are bound. If we can figure that out, we can start to

understand how other particles, like the proton, are bound,” said

Todd Kempel, an alumni ISU Ph.D. student.

Kempel, who graduated in 2010, won the 2011

Brookhaven National Laboratory RHIC and AGS Thesis Award for his

thesis paper, “Understanding the J/Psi meson Production Mechanism

at PHENIX.”

For his work, Kempel received an award of $3,000.

“When I started my Ph.D. program, I had no idea what

I wanted to do in physics,” Kempel said.

While in the Ph. D. program, Kempel joined the

Experimental Nuclear Physics group. This group worked with the RHIC

experiment. PHENIX, or Pioneering High Energy Ion Experiment, is

the experiment and RHIC is the accelerator. The ISU Experimental

Nuclear Physics group is still a major player in PHENIX.

Within that group, Kempel worked with Lajoie, his

eventual thesis adviser, on making, developing, designing and

testing prototype trigger modules for the experiment.

“He did the hardware design, the software design in

the hardware, the whole kit and kaboodle,” Lajoie said.

It was not until later, after hearing much about it,

that Kempel decided to work in nuclear physics and eventually to

study the J/psi meson.

“The problem itself was interesting. People have been

trying to solve this problem since the ‘70s. There still wasn’t any

satisfactory answer,” Kempel said.

However, the award wasn’t the goal of Kempel’s work.

“It was a bit of an afterthought. My adviser suggested entering the

program; so I did,” he said.

“It was a fantastic physics result. It was a solid

piece of science. The way he wrote the thesis, everything from his

style of writing to the presentation of the material was very

clear, very complete. Good science, good thesis, there was no way

he could lose,” Lajoie said.

Although Kempel worked in nuclear physics and won an

award for his work, he has since moved out of that field. He now

works with software, specifically software that controls electronic

hardware, something that he also spent a great deal of time on at

ISU.

Asked which work Kempel preferred, he said “I liked

being able to switch between the two.”