physics

Phiala E. Shanahan

Phiala E. Shanahan 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 Phiala E. Shanahan rather than just read about it. In short: Phiala Elisabeth Shanahan is an Australian theoretical physicist who lives and works in the United States. She is known for her work on the structure and interactions of hadrons and nuclei and her innovative use of machine learning techniques in lattice quantum field theory calculations.

Key takeaways

Phiala E. Shanahan belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
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Reproduce the core statement of Phiala E. Shanahan from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Phiala Elisabeth Shanahan is an Australian theoretical physicist who lives and works in the United States. She is known for her work on the structure and interactions of hadrons and nuclei and her innovative use of machine learning techniques in lattice quantum field theory calculations.

Education Shanahan attended The Wilderness School in Medindie, a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. While there, she received a 2007 Australian Student Prize. She received her BSc from the University of Adelaide in 2012 and her PhD from the same institution in 2015. Her PhD advisors were Anthony William Thomas and Ross D. Young. In her doctoral thesis, "Strangeness and Charge Symmetry Violation in Nucleon Structure," Shanahan studied the role of elementary particles called strange quarks and charge symmetry breaking in the structure of protons and neutrons in atomic nuclei using lattice quantum chromodynamics and effective field theory techniques. Her work improved understanding of the role of strange quarks in protons and atomic nuclei, which refines interpretations of experiments that seek to understand dark matter through direct detection techniques. Shanahan's work at the University of Adelaide and her thesis earned her the American Physical Society's 2017 Dissertation Award in Hadronic Physics, the 2016 Bragg Gold Medal for the best PhD completion in physics in Australia, and the University of Adelaide's 2016 Postgraduate Alumni University Medal.

Career After completing her PhD, Shanahan became a postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2015 to 2017. During this time, she studied the role of force-carrying elementary particles called gluons in the structure of subatomic particles called hadrons. She also used lattice quantum chromodynamics techniques to examine the structures of atomic nuclei. In 2017, Forbes featured Shanahan in its "30 Under 30: Science" list for the impact of her work on the understanding of dark matter and physics beyond the Standard Model. From 2017 to 2018, she held a joint appointment as assistant professor at the College of William & Mary and senior staff scientist at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. Shanahan became assistant professor in the Center for Theoretical Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in July 2018, which at that time made her the youngest assistant professor of physics there. Shanahan was also a Simons Emmy Noether Fellow at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics during the fall 2018 semester. This fellowship supports early- and mid-career women physicists. Shanahan's current research includes seeking to understand how the structures and interactions of hadrons and atomic nuclei can be calculated from the fundamental principles of the Standard Model of physics, the role of gluons in the structures of hadrons and atomic nuclei, and how supercomputers and machine learning may be used to perform low-energy quantum chromodynamics calculations. Some of the predictions she is currently developing may be testable in the future using the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility's planned electron-ion collider. Shanahan received the American Physical Society's 2021 Maria Goeppert Mayer Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement by early-career women physicists, for her "key insights into the structure and interactions of hadrons and nuclei using numerical and analytical methods and pioneering the use of machine learning techniques in lattice quantum field theory calculations in particle and nuclear physics."

Honors and awards 2007 Australian Student Prize 2016 Bragg Gold Medal for the best PhD completion in physics in Australia University of Adelaide's 2016 Postgraduate Alumni University Medal American Physical Society's 2017 Dissertation Award in Hadronic Physics Featured in Forbes magazine's 2017 "30 Under 30: Science" list. 2018 National Science Foundation CAREER Award for the project "Quark and Gluon Structure of Nucleons and Nuclei" 2020 United States Department of Energy Early Career Award for the project "The QCD Structure of Nucleons and Light Nuclei." The Lattice International Conference's 2020 Kenneth G. Wilson Award for Excellence in Lattice Field Theory Featured in Science News's 2020 "10 Scientists to Watch" list American Physical Society's 2021 Maria Goeppert Mayer Award

References

External links Phiala Shanahan's website at MIT Oral history interview transcript for Phiala Shanahan on 21 September 2020, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives Interview with Phiala Shanahan by Robyn Williams on The Science Show radio program on March 4, 2017 (contains audio and transcript) Public lecture "The Building Blocks of the Universe" by Phiala Shanahan at The Perimeter Institute on November 7, 2018 (contains video) Phiala E. Shanahan on INSPIRE-HEP

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Phiala E. Shanahan

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Phiala E. Shanahan 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 Phiala E. Shanahan 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 Phiala E. Shanahan 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 Phiala E. Shanahan

In research: Phiala E. Shanahan 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 Phiala E. Shanahan 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: Phiala E. Shanahan is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century Australian physicists, Australian women physicists, Living people, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Phiala E. Shanahan 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 Phiala E. Shanahan in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Phiala E. Shanahan means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Phiala E. Shanahan in simple terms?

Why does Phiala E. Shanahan 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 Phiala E. Shanahan?

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 Phiala E. Shanahan.