The Department of Chemistry of the University of Rochester offers graduate studies in nuclear chemistry leading to the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees. The program includes courses in nuclear chemistry on introductory and advanced levels. A special topics course on complex nuclear reaction dynamics is given as demand arises. The main emphasis of the program is placed, however, on an early involvement of the students in active, forefront research on nuclear reactions induced by heavy ions, conducted by the nuclear chemistry group (John R. Huizenga, Ph.D., Illinois, 1949; W. Udo Schroder, Ph.D., Darmstadt, Germany, 1971). It includes design and construction of nuclear particle detectors and of electronic accessories, as well as development of computer programs for data acquisition and analysis.
The nuclear chemistry group is based at the University of Rochester Nuclear Structure Research Laboratory (NSRL), shared with a number of nuclear physics groups whose research centers on the NSRL 12MV tandem accelerator. The nuclear chemistry group uses this accelerator mainly for conducting term projects, equipment tests, and to introduce students to modern techniques employed in in-beam nuclear reaction experiments. The majority of experimental research performed by the group is carried out at a number of national and foreign heavy-ion accelerator laboratories, including the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at MSU, and the two German heavy-ion centers, HMI in Berlin and GSI in Darmstadt. Experimental data are analyzed and interpreted in Rochester, using the various available computing facilities.
The research interests of the Rochester nuclear chemistry group are directed towards investigations of transport and relaxation mechanisms operating in nuclear interactions of energetic heavy ions. Of particular importance are the dissipative phenomena induced by nucleon exchange processes between projectile and target nuclei, as well as the evolution of the shape of the intermediate nucleus formed in damped and fusion-like processes. In a series of experiments, it will be investigated, to what degree a thermodynamic equilibrium of the nuclear system is attained in a heavy-ion reaction and what collective and intrinsic degrees of freedom participate in the process. These investigations are supported also by theoretical model studies of the reaction dynamics, carried out by the nuclear chemistry group. Related projects are directed to examine the competition between the various equilibrium and non-equilibrium decay modes of nuclear matter, produced at high excitation energies and spins in heavy- ion collisions. A new experimental program is being initiated for the bombarding-energy domain beyond 10-20 MeV per nucleon, approaching the "nuclear sound barrier", where dramatic changes in nuclear reaction phenomena are expected to occur. Recent developments in accelerator and detector technology promise to open up an exciting new field of nuclear research.
Students of the Rochester nuclear chemistry group are commonly supported by teaching and research assistantships.
Additional information may be obtained from:
Professor J. R. Huizenga or Professor W. U. Schroder
Department of Chemistry
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY 14627
PHONE:
Huizenga: (716) 275-4231
Schroder: (716) 275-4938
WEBSITE