Michael Thoennessen

Michael Thoennessen is a University Distinguished Professor at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams of Michigan State University (MSU) and an elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).

Education and Career

Michael Thoennessen received his Ph.D. in experimental nuclear physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1988. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Joint Institute for Heavy Ion Research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee he joined the faculty of Michigan State University in the Department of Physics & Astronomy and the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL). He served as the Editor-in-Chief of the American Physical Society's Physical Review journals from 2017[1] until 2022.[2]

Research

For his Ph.D. thesis Michael Thoennessen performed the first measurement of the giant dipole resonance built on highly excited state in heavy fissile nuclides.[3][4] At MSU he focused on the study of extremely proton- and neutron-rich nuclides.[5] As a founding member of the Modular Neutron Array collaboration his research group measured the properties of nuclides at and beyond the dripline.[6] Especially noteworthy was the discovery of ^26O.[7] Overall, Prof. Thoennessen co-authored the discovery of 50 isotopes.[8]

Honors

Thoennessen received the Benjamin J. Dasher Award[9] (1998) and the William Elgin Wickenden Award[10] (1990) of the American Society for Engineering Education. He was elected fellow of the APS[11] in 2005 he also received the University Distinguished Faculty Award at MSU.[12] He won the GENCO (GSI Exotic Nuclei Community) Membership Award[13] in 2005 and the APS Division of Nuclear Physics Mentoring Award[14] in 2009. He was named Physical Review Outstanding Referee[15] in 2013 and appointed University Distinguished Professor in 2013. [16]

Scientific Publications

• Michael Thoennessen publications indexed by Google Scholar
• The Discovery of Isotopes: A Complete Compilation[17] Springer Nature, (2016)

References

1. Voss, David (June 2017). "Michael Thoennessen Appointed New APS Editor in Chief". American Physical Society.
2. "Randell Kamien named APS editor in chief". 7 December 2022.
3. "Giant dipole resonance in highly excited lead and thorium nuclei". ProQuest 303750463.
4. Paul, P; Thoennessen, M (1994). "Fission Time Scales from Giant Dipole Resonances". Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science. 44 (44): 65–108. Bibcode:1994ARNPS..44...65P. doi:10.1146/annurev.ns.44.120194.000433.
5. Thoennessen, M (2004). "Reaching the limits of nuclear stability". Reports on Progress in Physics. 67 (7): 1187–1232. Bibcode:2004RPPh...67.1187T. doi:10.1088/0034-4885/67/7/R04.
6. Baumann, T; Spyrou, A; Thoennessen, M (2012). "Nuclear structure experiments along the neutron drip line". Reports on Progress in Physics. 75 (3): 036301. Bibcode:2012RPPh...75c6301B. doi:10.1088/0034-4885/75/3/036301. PMID 22790419.
7. Lunderberg, E; DeYoung, PA; Kohley, Z; et al. (2012). "Evidence for the Ground-State Resonance of ^26O". Physical Review Letters. 108 (14): 142503. arXiv:1202.3973. Bibcode:2012PhRvL.108n2503L. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.142503. PMID 22540789.
8. "Discovery of isotopes search".
9. "Benjamin J. Dasher Award".
10. "William Elgin Wickenden Award".
11. "APS Fellows Archive". www.aps.org. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
12. "MSU Distinguished Faculty Award".
13. "GSI Exotic Nuclei Community". February 2019.
14. "APS/DNP Mentoring Award".
15. "Physical Review Outstanding Referee".
16. "MSU University Distinguished Professor".
17. Thoennessen, Michael (2016). The Discovery of Isotopes: A Complete Compilation. Bibcode:2016dicc.book.....T. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-31763-2. ISBN 978-3-319-31761-8.,