Symposium to address neutrino physics, celebrate Avignone’s birthday

Because Frank Avignone’s area of specialty – neutrino physics – has become all the rage in scientific circles, his planned retirement in 2000 did not go well.

So, the University of South Carolina distinguished professor of physics has been going strong -- securing grants, setting up experiments, collaborating with colleagues – ever since.

And this week, he and some of his closest friends and esteemed scientific collaborators are in Columbia to help him celebrate his 75th birthday with a symposium devoted to his science.

The Carolina International Symposium on Neutrino Physics also will be an occasion to celebrate the 75th birthday of Ettore Fiorini of the Universita di Milano and to commemorate what would have been the 75th anniversary of Peter Rosen, former deputy to the director of the Office of Science at the Department of Energy. The three did work together for 30 years until Rosen’s recent death.

The symposium will be held Thursday – Saturday, May 15 – 17, at the Inn at USC. Among the topics to be discussed are supernova explosions, dark matter, dark energy and cosmology.

The list of guests expected to attend are among the world’s elite physicists and include National Academy of Science members Michael Turner of the University of Chicago, Wick Haxton and R.G. Hamish Robertson of the University of Washington and Stuart Freedman of the University of California.

“For most men my age, the science they’ve been doing gets old,” said Avignone. “So, they quit, maybe teach some undergraduate courses and, like an old general, they fade away. But in my case, it was the opposite. The science I’ve been doing suddenly became the hottest thing in neutrino physics. It got hot the year I stepped down as chair and has built steam since then.”

Avignone’s area of study focuses on the mass – or lack thereof – of the neutrino, one of the smallest particles in the universe. Its nature and evolution, scientists say, could unlock the keys to how the universe was formed.