UCSD physicist wins Hans Bethe Prize

George Fuller, director, UC San Diego Center for Astrophysics and Space SciencesUCSD

UC San Diego astrophysicist George Fuller has been chosen as recipient of the 2013 Hans Bethe Prize, an award named after the late Nobel laureate who helped develop the first atomic bombs during the Manhattan Project in World War II.

The American Physical Society is honoring the 58-year-old Fuller for his insights about how stars evolve and die, and the way sub-atomic particles called neutrinos behave in the early universe and in collapsing stars and supernovae.

"I'm delighted by this" award, said Fuller, who is director of UCSD's Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences. "It was a surprise."

Fuller has spent years studying how matter and energy interact with neutrinos. The interaction is weak, but it is enough to change neutrons to protons, and protons back to neutrons.

"The way stars shine and evolve is determined by this weak interaction," says Fuller, who counts the late Bethe as one of his idols.

Fuller also studies the various types, or "flavors," of neutrinos, and how they change.

"We know directly that there are three kinds of neutrinos: electrons, muons and tau. A lot of my work involves trying to figure out how these neutrinos change flavor. It will help explain the Big Bang, when the universe was one second old."

Fuller will formally accept the Bethe Prize next April in Denver. The prize comes with a gift of $10,000.


