User:Pnrj/Homer Alfred Neal

Homer Alfred Neal is an experimental high-energy physicist and university administrator. He served as Interim President of the University of Michigan, where he remains the Samuel A Goudsmit Professor of Physics He was formerly head of the ATLAS detector project at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. He is now Vice President of the American Physical Society and will be President in 2015.

Early Career

Homer Neal was born 13 Jun 1942 in Franklin, Kentucky, not an easy time or place to be African-American. He credits his early interest in science to experience in the hobby of amateur radio. He earned his BS at Indiana University in 1961, his MS at the University of Michigan in 1963, and his PhD at Michigan in 1966. His doctoral thesis research was directed by Michael Longo, on spin correlation in high-energy proton collisions, work which continues today.

Indiana University and SUNY Stony Brook

In 1967 he returned to Indiana University, where he became a professor of physics; there he was promoted to dean in 1976. In 1972 he became a fellow of the American Physical Society. In 1980, Neal became a Guggenheim Fellow at Indiana University Bloomington, where he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science in 1984.

In 1981, Neal moved to New York and became the provost of SUNY Stony Brook, where he worked until 1986. While at Stony Brook he participated in the DZERO collaboration, which later led to the discovery of the top quark in 1995.

University of Michigan

In 1987, Neal returned to the University of Michigan and became chair of the Physics Department. He was appointed Interim President of the University of Michigan when James J. Duderstadt retired on July 1, 1996. In that role he actively promoted diversity on campus, establishing the President’s New Century Fund for Diversity to support the Michigan Agenda for Women and the Michigan Mandate.

Later Career

Neal became a member of the board of directors of Ford Motor Company in 1997. He is also a member of the board of directors of Covanta Energy, formerly known as Ogden Corporation. In 2002, Neal was selected to chair the National Computational Science Alliance External Advisory Council at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In 2003, Neal was awarded the Edward A. Bouchet Award by the American Physical Society, "For his significant contributions to experimental high energy physics, for his important role in formulating governmental science policy, for his service as a university administrator at several universities, and for his advocacy of diversity and educational opportunity at all levels."

Before working on the ATLAS project, Neal had already collaborated with CERN for nearly 40 years. His part of the ATLAS project is heavily involved in developing computer software tools to aid collaboration between CERN and US universities; this work has required him to divide his time between Ann Arbor and Geneva.

In 2009, Neal delivered a presentation at the Spin Physics Symposium, entitled “The History of Spin at Michigan”. In 2012, he presented a lecture entitled “Hyperon Studies in the ATLAS Experiment” at the Flavor Physics and CP Violation Conference in Hefei, China. Neal is a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution, and has previously served on the Board of Trustees of Argonne National Laboratory and Fermilab. He also co-authored the book Beyond Sputnik: US Science Policy in the 21st Century in 2008.