Erwin Gabathuler
Erwin Gabathuler OBE FRS is a nuclear physicist from Northern Ireland.
Early life
Erwin Gabathuler was born in Maghera, Co. Londonderry, Northern Ireland on 16 November 1933, a son of the manager of the Swiss embroidery factory. He attended Rainey Endowed School, Magherafelt and gained a B.Sc. Hons in Physics from Queen's University, Belfast in 1956 and a Ph.D. from the University of Glasgow in 1961.
Career
He researched at Cornell University, USA from 1961–1964, then Daresbury Laboratory, Cheshire 1965-1974. He began work at CERN in 1974, as a scientific attaché from the Rutherford Laboratory, Didcot, eventually becoming a direct employee at CERN in 1978 for a 4-year appointment as Head of the Experimental Physics Division, taking over from E. Picasso. He spent 1983-2001 at the University of Liverpool as professor of Physics and head of the particle physics group, maintaining his connections with CERN. When he retired, the University of Liverpool organised an "ErwinFest"[1] to celebrate his career. He continues to live in Cheshire.
Research and Achievements
Academic Papers published 1958-1977
Some Electron Collision Cross-Sections for Nitrogen and Oxygen, Proc. Phys. Soc., Vol. 72, p. 287-289, 1958.
Electron Collision Cross—Sections in Helium, Proc. Phys. Soc., Vo1. 74, p. 473-477, 1959.
The L/K - capture in I126, Proc. Phys. Soc., Vol 72, p. 437-440, 1958.
On the separation of positive pions by a time of flight technique, Nucl. Instrum. & Methods, 8, p.230—232, 1960.
Photoproduction of positive pions from hydrogen near threshold, Phys. Rev. 125, p. 378-384, 1962.
Photoproduction of K+ in hydrogen, Phys. Rev. Letts. 9, p. 131-133, 1962.
Photoproduction of strange particles, Proceedings of International Conference on High Energy Physics at CERN, p. 266-269, 1962.
Polarisation of Λ° hyperons from photoproduction in hydrogen, Phys. Rev. Letts. 11, p. 433-435, 1963.
Photoproduction of K+Σ° in hydrogen, Bull. Am. Phys. Soc., 9, 22, 1964 - complete results given here only.
Photoproduction of K+ meson from hydrogen, Proceedings of International Conference on Electron and Photon Interactions at High Energies, p. 203-206, Hamburg, 1965.
Experimental Test of Quantum Electrodynamics by Photoproduction of Wide Angle Electron Pairs from Hydrogen, Phys. Rev. Letts. 23, p. 927-930, 1969.
Observation of ρ—ω interference in the photoproduction of electron position pairs from carbon and a measurement of the ρ-ω phase, Phys. Rev. Letts. 24, p. 1197-1201, 1970.
Measurement of the magnitude and phase of ρ-ω interference π+π- photoproduction from carbon, Phys. Rev. Letts. 24, p. 1201-1205, 1970.
Photoproduction of Electron Pairs as a test of Q.E.D., Phys. Rev. D. Vol. 1, p. 1252-1266, 1970.
Evidence for the ω-2π Decay by ρ-ω Interference in Vector Meson Photoproduction. Invited Paper at International Conference on Experimental Meson Spectroscopy. - Experimental Meson Spectroscopy, Columbia University Press p. 645-655, 1970.
Interference Effects in High Energy Vector Meson Photoproduction. Review Paper in Vector Meson Production and Omega-Rho Interference . p. 115-138, DNPL/R7, June 1970.
Determination of the Real Part of the ρ-Nucleon Forward Scattering Amplitude, Phys. Rev. Letters 27 1157, 1971.
Vector Mesons - Review Paper, Journal of Physics A, Vol. 5, No. 2, 1972.
Experimental Programme at the Daresbury Laboratory. Invited Talk Photon and Lepton Physics in Europe — DNPL R.11, 1972.
Experimental Utilisation at the NINA Booster - DNPL R13 Vol. II, 1972.
A High Intensity Muon Beam at the S.P.S., Vol. I. Proceedings of the Tirrenia Study Week, p. 208, CERN/ECFA/72/4, 1972.
Total Cross—Sections — Rapporteur Talk at the Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Electron and Photon Interactions at High Energies, Bonn 1973.
A high resolution photon tagging system in the GeV range. Nucl. Instrum. and Methods 115, 465, 1974.
ω Photoproduction off neutrons — a test of A2 peripherality, Nucl. Physics B 78, 515, 1974.
Search for ΔI = 2 Electromagnetic currents in Pion Photoproduction, Phys. Rev. Letters 33, 1500, 1974.
Backward photoproduction of ρ° and f between 2.8 and 4.8 GeV, Phys. Letters 64B, 213, 1976.
Awards and Decorations
He was elected to the Royal Society[2] on 15 March 1990 and received the Rutherford Medal and Prize in 1992 (with Terry Sloan) from the Institute of Physics. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2001 for services to physics.
He received two honorary degrees, a Doctorate from Uppsala University, Sweden in 1982, and a D.Sc. from Queen's University, Belfast in 1997.[3]