Alfred Goshaw

Alfred Goshaw
Goshaw photo (1).webp Goshaw photo (1).webp
Born
🏫 Education	University of Wisconsin–Madison
💼 Occupation
Known for	Collider Detector at Fermilab

Alfred T. Goshaw is an American physicist and professor emeritus at Duke University, known for his work in experimental elementary particle physics research in international collaborations at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Fermilab (FNAL) and CERN. His research includes measurements of the resonance structure of hadrons, studies of properties of the W and Z bosons and the tests of the Standard Model using both bubble chambers and fully electronic detectors at high-energy hadron colliders. He is recipient of High Energy and Particle Physics Prize and the fellow of American Physical Society.

Early life and education

Goshaw earned a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1959 and continued at the same institution for graduate study, receiving a Ph.D. in physics in 1966. He subsequently held a postdoctoral position in physics at Princeton University from 1966 to 1969.

Academic career

After his postdoctoral work, Goshaw spent four years as physicist on the staff at CERN from 1969 to 1973. He then joined the faculty of Duke University as an assistant professor of physics in 1973, becoming associate professor in 1978, full professor in 1984, and James B. Duke Professor in 2000. He continued teaching and conducting research at Duke until his retirement in 2020 when he became professor emeritus. After retirement from Duke he continues to do research at CERN with the ATLAS experiment.

Research

Goshaw’s research career spans the evolution of the Standard Model of elementary particle physics with experimental measurements in the1960’using bubble chambers to current research using large modern collider experiments

Early research

Early in his career, Goshaw carried out experiments that studied meson and baryon resonances using bubble chambers and hybrid bubble chamber-electronic detectors using accelerator facilities at BNL, FNAL, SLAC, and CERN. At Duke he helped transition the physics department’s research program into high-energy collider experiments. He was Program Director of the Duke High Energy Physics group from 1992 to 2009.

He became a leader in research at the Fermilab Tevatron collider, particularly through his involvement with the CDF collaboration investigating electroweak boson production, studies of properties of the top quark, searches for the Higgs boson and physics beyond the Standard Model. By the mid-1990s, he served for six years as co-spokesperson of the CDF collaboration, a large team of international scientists working on precision measurements and searches for new fundamental particles. Duke’s contribution to the discovery of the top quark was highlighted when the CDF and D0 collaborations were recognized for the 1995 top quark observation at the Fermilab Tevatron.

Current research at CERN

In the 21st century, Goshaw has conducted research as part of the ATLAS collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN with studies of electroweak boson production that provide limits on anomalous gauge couplings and a variety of other measurements that make precision tests of the electroweak sector of the Standard Model. He has held leadership roles in the ATLAS program as Chair of the U.S. ATLAS Institutional Board (2008 to 2013).

Selected publications

• "A search for the kappa meson". Physics Letters. 22 (3): 347–349. August 1966. doi:10.1016/0031-9163(66)90642-1.
• "Deuteron-Deuteron Elastic Scattering at 2.2 and 7.9 GeV c : Experimental Study". Physical Review Letters. 25 (4): 249–253. 27 July 1970. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.25.249.
• "Compton electron scattering in the 0.1 to 5.0 GeV energy range". Physical Review D. 18 (5): 1351–1358. 1 September 1978. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.18.1351.
• "D-meson production from 400 GeV/c p-p interactions evidence for leading di-quarks?". Physics Letters B. 201 (1): 176–182. January 1988. doi:10.1016/0370-2693(88)90103-7.
• "Multiplicity dependence of the transverse-momentum spectrum for centrally produced hadrons in antiproton-proton collisions at √s =1.8 TeV". Physical Review Letters. 60 (16): 1622–1625. 18 April 1988. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.60.1622.
• "Evidence of Wγγ production in pp collisions at √s =8  TeV and limits on anomalous quartic gauge couplings with the ATLAS detector". Physical review letters. 115 (3). 17 July 2015. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.031802. ISSN 1079-7114.

Synergistic activities

Goshaw has held numerous roles in the particle physics community including serving on the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel (1996-1999),  co-spokesperson of the CDF Collaboration  (1997-2003), secretary-treasurer of the Division of Particles and Fields (2007–2009), and chair of the U.S. ATLAS Institutional Board (2008–2013).

Honors and recognition

Goshaw was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1998. Duke University physicists, including Goshaw, shared the 2019 High Energy and Particle Physics Prize from the European Physical Society for contributions to the discovery of the top quark at Fermilab lab and more recently in 2025 shared the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for discovery of the Higgs boson by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations. His research group was recognized in 2023 for outstanding contributions to research in elementary particle physics at Duke University with the Dean’s Leadership Award.

See also

• Collider Detector at Fermilab
• ATLAS experiment
• Standard Model

References

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