Stephen Parke

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Stephen Parke

| image = StephenParke2020.jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Stephen Parke in 2020

| birth_date =

| birth_place = Gisborne, New Zealand

| nationality = New Zealand
United Kingdom
United States

| death_date =

| death_place =

| field = Theoretical physics

| work_institution = Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

| alma_mater = Campion College, Gisborne
St Peter's College, Auckland
University of Auckland
Harvard University

| doctoral_advisor = Sidney Coleman

| academic_advisors = Sidney Drell

| doctoral_students =

| known_for = Parke–Taylor amplitudes, analytic understanding of MSW effect and top quark spin correlations/quantum entanglement

| prizes =

| footnotes =

}}

Stephen Parke is a

New Zealand-American theoretical physicist. He is a distinguished scientist and former head (2010–2015) of the Theoretical Physics Department at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Batavia, Illinois."[http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0805/S00061.htm Rutherford explanation this week]". University of Canterbury. 26 May 2008.

Born in Gisborne, New Zealand, Parke attended Campion College, Gisborne and St Peter's College, Auckland. He did his undergraduate studies, mathematics and physics, at the University of Auckland in New Zealand where his mentor was Dan Walls. He obtained a Fulbright [https://fulbright.org.nz/grantees-alumni/alumni/nzgraduate/ Travel Grant] and was awarded a Frank Knox Memorial Fellowship to attend graduate school at Harvard University. He was a graduate student of Sidney Coleman, obtaining a PhD in theoretical particle physics in 1980. He held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (1980–1983) collaborating with Sidney Drell before moving to the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory as an Associate Scientist.{{Cite web |title=Stephen J. Parke |url=https://inspirehep.net/authors/994213 |access-date=2023-02-02 |website=inspirehep.net}} He became an APS fellow in 1996 and in 2018 he was awarded a [https://www.calendar.auckland.ac.nz/en/progreg/regulations-higher-doctorates/dsc.html Doctorate of Science] from the University of Auckland for his work on [https://inspirehep.net/files/eec5a91159075603c596ba65480ed7bf "Amplitudes in Gauge Theories"]. Parke's Erdos number is 3, having written papers with both Sidney Coleman and mathematician Terence Tao.

Contributions to physics

He is an originator of Parke–Taylor amplitudes, which he developed with his colleague, Tomasz Taylor.{{Cite web |last=Wolchover |first=Natalie |date=September 17, 2013 |title=A Jewel at the Heart of Quantum Physics |url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-discover-geometry-underlying-particle-physics-20130917/ |website=Quanta Magazine}} Parke-Taylor amplitudes represent a new approach to computing scattering amplitudes in quantum chromodynamics using symmetry methods such as supersymmetry. This work was further extended in collaboration with Michelangelo Mangano and Xu Zhan. The discovery of the Parke-Taylor amplitudes ignited the [https://inspirehep.net/conferences?sort=dateasc&size=25&page=1&start_date=2009-01-01--&q=amplitudes amplitude revolution]: a major advance in our understanding and calculability of scattering amplitudes in gauge theories, the foundation of particle physics. This advance is discussed in detail in Chapter 11 of Graham Farmelo's book [https://grahamfarmelo.com/universe-speaks-in-numbers/ "The Universe speaks in Numbers"]. Parke's important Amplitude papers are

[https://inspirehep.net/literature?sort=mostcited&size=100&page=1&q=a%20Stephen.J.Parke.1%20and%20%28a%20mangano%20or%20a%20taylor%2C%20t%29%20and%20ac%201-%3E9%20and%20%20topcite%20200%2B linked here.]

With collaborator Gregory Mahon and others he pioneered the study of spin correlations in Top Quark pair production at Hadron collider which has led to the confirmation of quantum entanglement at the highest possible energy by ATLAS and CMS.[https://home.cern/news/press-release/physics/lhc-experiments-cern-observe-quantum-entanglement-highest-energy-yet] Here is a link to his important [https://inspirehep.net/literature?sort=mostcited&size=100&page=1&q=a%20Stephen.J.Parke.1%20and%20ti%20top%20%20and%20ac%201-%3E9%20and%20%28%20topcite%20200%2B%20or%20a%20shadmi%29 Top Quark papers].

Parke is also an expert on neutrino physics.{{Cite web |last=Wolchover |first=Natalie |date=November 13, 2019 |title=Neutrinos Lead to Unexpected Discovery in Basic Math |url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/neutrinos-lead-to-unexpected-discovery-in-basic-math-20191113/ |access-date=2023-02-02 |website=Quanta Magazine}} He gave the first analytical solution to the MSW effect including the non-adabatic region and has made important contributions to the physics of Long baseline Neutrino Oscillation experiments, T2K, NOvA, Hyper-Kamiokande and DUNE as well as the reactor experiments RENO, Daya Bay and JUNO. Here is a link to his important [https://inspirehep.net/literature?sort=mostcited&size=100&page=1&q=a%20Stephen.J.Parke.1%20and%20%28ti%20neutrino%20or%20ti%20neutrinos%29%20and%20ac%201-%3E9%20and%20topcite%20100%2B Neutrino papers].

He has also written papers on [https://inspirehep.net/literature?sort=mostcited&size=25&page=1&q=a%20Stephen.J.Parke.1%20and%20%28ti%20dyon%20or%20ti%20monopoles%29and%20topcite%20100%2B Magnetic Monopoles] and the [https://inspirehep.net/literature?sort=mostrecent&size=100&page=1&q=a%20Stephen.J.Parke.1%20and%20ti%20Gravity decay of the false vacuum] in curved space time.

Personal life

Parke's father was the orthopedic surgeon [https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/lives/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ASSET$002f0$002fSD_ASSET:373760/one?qu=%22rcs%3A+E001577%22&rt=false%7C%7C%7CIDENTIFIER%7C%7C%7CResource+Identifier William Parke] and mother Muriel Parke (née Stephens), a school teacher. His parents both born in Liverpool immigrated from the UK to New Zealand in 1949 to help with the polio epidemic raging in New Zealand at that time. Parke is a nephew of marine botanist Mary Parke.

Parke is married to Winifred Haun, the [https://www.macfound.org/grantee/winifred-haun-dancers-19391/ MacArthur Foundation] and [https://www.3arts.org/artist/winifred-haun/ 3Arts] award-winning Choreographer and artistic director of the contemporary dance company [https://www.winifredhaun.org/about-us Winifred Haun & Dancers]. They have three daughters: Athena, Iris and Selene.

References

External links

Parke's scientific publications are available on the INSPIRE-HEP Literature Database [http://inspirehep.net/search?p=author%3AS.J.Parke.1+].
[http://inspirehep.net/record/994213 HEPNames profile: Stephen Parke]
[http://theory.fnal.gov/people/parke/ Stephen Parke at Fermilab Theoretical Physics Department]

Category:Particle physicists

Category:Neutrino physicists

Category:American theoretical physicists

Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society

Category:20th-century American physicists

Category:21st-century American physicists

Category:20th-century New Zealand physicists

Category:21st-century New Zealand physicists

Category:Harvard University alumni

Category:American people of New Zealand descent

Category:New Zealand scientists

Category:New Zealand physicists