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FRIB Saturday Morning Physics talk - So many elements, so little time

Gregory Severin

Talk details

Talk abstract

The radiation from rare isotopes allows us to detect them, but it also marks their decay. Radiochemists are constantly racing against the clock to utilize the traceability of radionuclides to improve our understanding of chemistry, medicine, physiology, nuclear physics, and many other interesting subjects. Sometimes too-short or too-long half-lives make that job difficult, and require us to mix and match elements outside of their natural environments. The plus side of that rearrangement is that radiochemists get to work with elements all across the periodic table. Who else plays with manganese, lanthanum, zirconium, thulium, and erbium all in the same week? Come see how fast and slow decays are used to trace all types of interesting processes with the most unlikely combination of elements.

Presenter

Gregory Severin

Gregory Severin grew up in Okemos, Michigan. He was drawn to nuclear science after touring the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory as a teenager. He has a PhD in physics and a master of science in Chemistry from University of Wisconsin-Madison.