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DOE Pulse
  • Number 452  |
  • November 16, 2015

Curiosity and a desire to build: Nuclear physicist Dick Kouzes

PNNL's Dick Kouzes

PNNL's Dick Kouzes

If you've ever been truly curious about something, you know that getting the answer isn't the end. It's just the beginning. Answers lead to action, to seeing if you can apply what you’ve learned to make a difference. Dick Kouzes, a noted physicist at DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, knows by heart. For 40 years, he's tackled difficult questions about how the universe works and applied that knowledge to create better ways to detect illicit nuclear materials, find carbon dioxide leaks, and teach the nuances of physics to poets.

At Princeton University in New Jersey, where he graduated with a doctoral degree in physics and later served as a Senior Research Physicist and Lecturer, he delved into neutrino detection. Neutrinos are the byproduct of the reactions that occur at the heart of the Sun and other stars. The neutrinos, which are smaller than atoms and travel at near the speed of light, flow through us and our planet. Dick wanted to know why the number of neutrinos measured by detectors and that predicted by computational models didn't agree.

This led him and his Princeton colleague, Art McDonald, who recently won the Nobel Prize in physics, to join the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, an underground laboratory deep in the Vale Creighton Mine in Ontario, Canada. The miles of rock above the laboratory shielded the detectors from interfering radiation. The SNOLAB detector data allowed scientists to measure one flavor or type of neutrino, but then sum up the number of all neutrinos in a different way.

The information led Dick and his colleagues to the answer. The neutrino numbers didn't match because the neutrinos change flavors on their journey from the Sun and the Earth. "This realization helped us understand that only one-third of these neutrinos remain detectable," said Dick.

The SNOLAB detectors were shut down in 2006, but the data is still being used to make new discoveries and being recognized with honors, including the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.

In addition to his work at SNOLAB, Dick worked with DOE  on review committees, including the committee that reviewed what would become the DOE Office of Science user facility, EMSL, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory. While working on that committee, Dick became interested in the questions that could be answered at PNNL, where EMSL was built.

He later moved to PNNL, where he continued to work on the fundamental nature of the universe through the Majorana project. Having shown that neutrinos changed form, he now was curious about the mass of a particular flavor of neutrino, the electron neutrino. "We know they must have mass because they have the ability to change their nature," said Dick.

Understanding neutrinos and other theoretical physics work helps explain why the universe formed as it did and why matter is far more prevalent than antimatter, but Dick's work doesn't end at these larger questions. He's put his fundamental research into action. He's applied his understanding of the neutrino to detect radiation for treaty verification and non-proliferation. This includes work as the principal investigator on a major project focused on detecting radioactive materials being smuggled across international borders to manufacture nuclear weapons.

"While it is easy to see how the deployment of radiation detectors protects citizens from nuclear weapons and my work with non-proliferation assures countries follow agreed upon treaties, I didn't expect it to influence carbon sequestration," Dick said. Together, Dick and Alaine Bonneville at PNNL and several others, including one of Dick's former students, are designing a detector that could go in a borehole under a carbon sequestration site to detect carbon movement. The detector picks up muons, which are formed by cosmic rays. "Essentially, we are investigating if we can use cosmic rays to measure carbon dioxide levels underground, allowing us to monitor the process, including leaks."

Throughout his projects at PNNL, he has devoted countless hours to mentoring students, for which he has received awards including the Office of Science’s Outstanding Mentor Award. Right now, he's teaching a junior-level online physics course, called Physics and Society, at Washington State University. Also, he recently contributed to the Modern Scholars Series, which covers major concepts in the humanities and sciences beginning in the ancient world through modern ideas. He recorded a 3.5-hour physics lecture called Physics for Poets. "I enjoy working with students," he said. "You learn more from teaching than you teach."

His need to understand how things work led him to question how housing affects the nearby communities. He started volunteering with Habitat for Humanity and was hooked. He has worked on over 70 homes for Habitat since 2002 and has served as a crew lead for the last decade.

But his curiosity has taken him to sandy lots much farther from home. He spends a couple weeks each year volunteering with EarthWatch, which supports scientific research around the world. He has participated on archeology and paleontology digs in Thailand, Italy, Tanzania, and other sites. While he has always found something, his favorite ones were his work on uncovering a mosaic floor in a Tuscan villa and finding pots and metalworking tools at a Bronze Age dig in Thailand.

Throughout his career, he's been driven to learn new things and seek new challenges. "I've always found something I've enjoyed doing and then been lucky enough to find funding for it."

Submitted by DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory