UT Physics Student Headed to Nobel Gathering

February 22, 2005

Graduate Student Donny Hornback will have the opportunity to shake hands with some 53 Nobel Prize winners this summer. He is one of 600 graduate students worldwide selected to attend the 55th Meeting of Nobel Prize Winners from June 26th through July 1 in Lindau, Germany.

The meeting began in 1951 when two German doctors had the idea of forming an international congress where Nobel laureates could exchange ideas. The first meeting was for medical specialists, but over the next half century the conference expanded to include chemists and physicists. Bringing together laureates and young scientists in a casual atmosphere allows for an open exchange of ideas and encourages students to build their own collegial scientific networks. The 2005 meeting will include representatives from all three fields as a nod to the increasing crossover of the natural sciences. Among the agenda topics are the evolution of matter, biology and medicine in the post-genomic era, and energy demand and global warming.

Donald spent six years in the United States Air Force before completing a bachelor’s degree in physics (UT, December 2002). He is now working toward a doctorate with Drs. Soren Sorensen and Ken Read in UT’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Physics research group.

More Information:

55th Nobel Meeting in Landau:
http://www.lindau-nobel.de

More About Donald Hornback:
http://www.phys.utk.edu/xsections/xsections_F2002_hornback.htm

The UT Relativistic Heavy Ion Physics Group:
http://www.phys.utk.edu/rhip/index.htm