Gavin Salam

Salam was educated at the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle in London and the University of Cambridge where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1993 followed by a PhD in particle physics in 1996.{{ORCID|0000-0002-2655-4373}} His doctoral thesis was titled "Quarkonium scattering at high energies". During his postgraduate study he was based in the Cavendish Laboratory where his research investigated the scattering of Quarkonium{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |publisher=University of Cambridge |title=Quarkonium scattering at high energies |first= Gavin Phillip |last=Salam |year=1996 |oclc=894607524|id={{ProQuest|301530682}} }} funded by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC).{{cite journal |last1=Mueller |first1=A.H. |last2=Salam |first2=G.P. |title=Large multiplicity fluctuations and saturation effects in onium collisions |journal=Nuclear Physics B |volume=475 |issue=1–2 |year=1996 |pages=293–317 |doi=10.1016/0550-3213(96)00336-7 |arxiv=hep-ph/9605302 |bibcode=1996NuPhB.475..293M|s2cid=18245861 }}{{cite journal |last1=Salam |first1=G.P. |title=Multiplicity distribution of colour dipoles at small x |journal=Nuclear Physics B |volume=449 |issue=3 |year=1995 |pages=589–601 |doi=10.1016/0550-3213(95)00299-8 |arxiv=hep-ph/9504284 |bibcode=1995NuPhB.449..589S|s2cid=18194851 }}

Salam's research explores the ways in which QCD can be exploited to understand elementary particle interactions, notably the Higgs boson, and also how it can be harnessed in the search for new particles. He has made significant contributions to the understanding of the structure of the proton and of jets (cones of hadrons),{{cite journal |last1=Salam |first1=Gavin P. |title=Towards jetography |journal=European Physical Journal C |volume=67 |issue=3–4 |year=2010 |pages=637–686 |doi=10.1140/epjc/s10052-010-1314-6 |arxiv=0906.1833 |bibcode=2010EPJC...67..637S|s2cid=119184431 }}{{cite journal |last1=Cacciari |first1=Matteo |last2=Salam |first2=Gavin P. |title=Dispelling the N³ myth for the K_t jet-finder |journal=Physics Letters B |volume=641 |issue=1 |year=2006 |pages=57–61 |doi=10.1016/j.physletb.2006.08.037 |arxiv=hep-ph/0512210 |bibcode=2006PhLB..641...57C|s2cid=16074416 }}{{cite journal |last1=Cacciari |first1=Matteo |last2=Salam |first2=Gavin P. |last3=Soyez |first3=Gregory |title=FastJet user manual |journal=The European Physical Journal C |volume=72 |issue=3 |pages=1896 |year=2012 |doi=10.1140/epjc/s10052-012-1896-2 |arxiv=1111.6097 |bibcode=2012EPJC...72.1896C|s2cid=254104815 }}{{cite journal |last1=Cacciari |first1=Matteo |last2=Salam |first2=Gavin P |last3=Soyez |first3=Gregory |title=The anti-k_t jet clustering algorithm |journal=Journal of High Energy Physics |volume=2008 |issue=4 |year=2008 |pages=063 |doi=10.1088/1126-6708/2008/04/063 |arxiv=0802.1189 |bibcode=2008JHEP...04..063C}}{{cite journal |last1=Butterworth |first1=Jonathan M. |last2=Davison |first2=Adam R. |last3=Rubin |first3=Mathieu |last4=Salam |first4=Gavin P. |title=Jet Substructure as a New Higgs-Search Channel at the Large Hadron Collider |journal=Physical Review Letters |volume=100 |issue=24 |pages=242001 |year=2008 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.242001 |pmid=18643577 |authorlink1=Jon Butterworth |arxiv=0802.2470 |bibcode=2008PhRvL.100x2001B|s2cid=119200850 }} the signatures of quarks and gluons produced in high-energy collisions. He invented the most widely used approach for identifying jets at the Large Hadron Collider.

Before working at CERN, Salam held appointments at Princeton University in the United States and the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) in Milan. He joined the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in 2000, in the Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Hautes Energies (LPTHE){{cite web |url=http://www.lpthe.jussieu.fr/~salam/ |website=lpthe.jussieu.fr |title=Gavin Salam at LPTHE |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20020604142906/http://www.lpthe.jussieu.fr/~salam/ |archivedate=4 June 2002}} attached to the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris.

Salam appeared with Jon Butterworth in the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) documentary Colliding Particles – Hunting the Higgs, which follows a team of physicists trying to find the Higgs Boson.{{cite web|url=http://www.collidingparticles.com/about/|website=collidingparticles.com|title=Colliding Particles – Hunting the Higgs|author=Anon|year=2009}}

Salam was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2017,{{cite web |url=https://royalsociety.org/people/gavin-salam-13419/ |website=royalsociety.org |publisher=Royal Society |location=London |author=Anon |year=2017 |title=Dr Gavin Salam FRS |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170505140508/https://royalsociety.org/people/gavin-salam-13419/ |archivedate=5 May 2017 }} One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: {{blockquote |"All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." --{{cite web |url=https://royalsociety.org/about-us/terms-conditions-policies/ |title=Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies |accessdate=2016-03-09 |url-status=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161111170346/https://royalsociety.org/about-us/terms-conditions-policies/ |archivedate=2016-11-11 }}}} awarded the Médaille d'argent (Silver Medal) of the CNRS in 2010, and the IOP Dirac Prize in 2023.

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Category:Fellows of the Royal Society

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