astronomy

Priscilla Cushman

Priscilla Cushman is a astronomy 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 Priscilla Cushman rather than just read about it. In short: Priscilla Brooks "Prisca" Cushman (also published as Priscilla Cushman Petersen) is a professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota. Formerly focused on the study of muons through accelerator-based high energy physics, including collaborating on the Muon g-2 and Compact Muon Solenoid experiments, her recent research has concerned the experimental search for dark matter through the C…

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Priscilla Brooks "Prisca" Cushman (also published as Priscilla Cushman Petersen) is a professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota. Formerly focused on the study of muons through accelerator-based high energy physics, including collaborating on the Muon g-2 and Compact Muon Solenoid experiments, her recent research has concerned the experimental search for dark matter through the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search experiments. She has also collaborated with artist Karl Ramberg on a multimedia light and sound performance based on data from her dark matter experiments.

Education and career Cushman majored in physics at Harvard University, graduating cum laude in 1976. From 1976 to 1979 she worked as a senior scientist at Aeronautical Research Associates of Princeton. She completed a Ph.D. in physics at Rutgers University in 1985, supervised by Thomas J. Devlin. She was a postdoctoral research associate at Rockefeller University from 1985 until 1988, working there on the UA6 experiment at CERN. From 1988 until 1993 she was an assistant and associate professor at Yale University, where she began her work on the Muon g-2 experiment. She moved in 1993 to the University of Minnesota as an associate professor of physics, and after continuing her work on Muon g-2 she began working on the Compact Muon Solenoid experiments. She was promoted to full professor in 2000, and began her work on dark matter as director of the Low Background Counting Facility at the Soudan Mine in 2004. She became spokesperson for the SuperCDMS collaboration in 2018, and remains its spokesperson.

Recognition Cushman was elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) in 2012, after a nomination from the APS Division of Particles and Fields, "for outstanding contributions in the design and execution of experiments probing beyond the Standard Model especially the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search and the precise measurement of the muon magnetic moment, and the development of photodetection and low radioactivity instrumentation to advance the capabilities of high energy physics experiments". She was named as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2014.

References

External links Home page Whiteboard: Prisca Cushman, Symmetry Magazine

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Priscilla Cushman

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Priscilla Cushman claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, 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 Priscilla Cushman 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 Priscilla Cushman 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 Priscilla Cushman

In research: Priscilla Cushman appears in astronomy 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 Priscilla Cushman 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: Priscilla Cushman is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American physicists, American women physicists, Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Priscilla Cushman 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 Priscilla Cushman in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Priscilla Cushman 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.
Explain Priscilla Cushman out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Priscilla Cushman in simple terms?

Why does Priscilla Cushman matter?

Because it connects several astronomy 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 Priscilla Cushman?

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 Priscilla Cushman.