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Patricia Burchat

Patricia Burchat is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Patricia Burchat rather than just read about it. In short: Patricia Burchat (born 1958) is the Gabilan Professor of Physics at Stanford University who researches experimental particle physics and cosmology. She is interested in mapping dark matter in the universe, and understanding the nature of dark energy.

Patricia Burchat — main illustration
Patricia Burchat — illustration

Key takeaways

  • Patricia Burchat belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Patricia Burchat to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Patricia Burchat from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Patricia Burchat (born 1958) is the Gabilan Professor of Physics at Stanford University who researches experimental particle physics and cosmology. She is interested in mapping dark matter in the universe, and understanding the nature of dark energy. She was named a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2001, and a Guggenheim Fellow in 2005. In 2012 she became a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Early life and education Born in 1958, Burchat grew up in Barry's Bay, Ontario, Canada, and attended Madawaska Valley District High School. In 1981 she graduated with a B.S. in applied science and engineering from the University of Toronto, and earned a Ph.D. in physics at Stanford University in 1986.

Career Burchat held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Santa Cruz from 1986 to 1988, after which she joined the faculty until 1995. She has been a member of the Stanford Physics faculty since 1995, and served as the chair of the department from 2007 to 2010.

Research Burchat has been a member of multiple particle physics experiments, including the Mark II experiment at the SLAC Linear Collider and the E791 experiment at Fermilab. She was a founding member of the BaBar experiment at SLAC which explored fundamental particle interactions, especially the weak interaction. In these experiments she researched Z bosons as the carriers of the weak interaction, heavy neutral leptons, semileptonic decay of charm mesons, charm mixing, CP violations in B meson decays, and differences in the way matter and antimatter evolved in time. Burchat has also been interested in investigating the cosmological evolution of the Universe. She joined the international community developing the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, aiming to study gravitational bending of light by dark matter and the evolution of dark energy. Her 2008 TED talk, "Shedding light on dark matter", explores these two components making up about 96 percent of the universe.

Awards and honors 2020 — Engineering Alumni Hall of Distinction Award, University of Toronto 2012 — Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science 2010 — Judith Pool Award, Northern California Chapter of the Association for Women in Science 2007 — Walter J. Gores Award, Stanford University 2006 — Gabilan Professor of Physics, Stanford University 2005 — Guggenheim Fellow, Stanford University (2005) 2004 — Sapp Family University Fellow in UG Education, Stanford University 2001 — Fellow, American Physical Society, cited "For her contributions to the understanding of heavy quark physics, particularly in semileptonic weak decays, in mixing of neutral D and B mesons, and in CP violation."

See also The Dark Energy Survey

References

External links Official website Patricia Burchat on INSPIRE-HEP

Illustrations

Patricia Burchat illustration

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Patricia Burchat

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Patricia Burchat claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Patricia Burchat before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Patricia Burchat ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Patricia Burchat

In research
Patricia Burchat appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Patricia Burchat in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Patricia Burchat is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1958 births, 21st-century American physicists, 21st-century American women physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Patricia Burchat outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
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How to study Patricia Burchat in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Patricia Burchat means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Patricia Burchat out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Patricia Burchat in simple terms?

Patricia Burchat (born 1958) is the Gabilan Professor of Physics at Stanford University who researches experimental particle physics and cosmology. She is interested in mapping dark matter in the universe, and understanding the nature of dark energy.

Why does Patricia Burchat matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Patricia Burchat?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Patricia Burchat.

Tags

  • 1958 births
  • 21st-century American physicists
  • 21st-century American women physicists
  • 21st-century Canadian physicists
  • 21st-century Canadian women physicists
  • Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
  • Fellows of the American Physical Society
  • Living people
  • Particle physicists
  • People from Renfrew County
  • Stanford University Department of Physics faculty
  • Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences alumni

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