Prize Recipient


Recipient Picture

Michael P. Mendenhall
National Institute of Standards and Technology

Citation:

"Measurement of the neutron decay asymmetry using ultracold neutrons."

Background:

Dr. Michael P. Mendenhall received an A.B. in physics and mathematics from Washington University in St. Louis in 2006, and a Ph.D. in physics from the California Institute of Technology in 2014. For his thesis research, Michael worked with the UCNA Collaboration, using bottled ultracold neutrons to measure the angular correlation between neutron polarization and electron momentum. Such precision decay measurements determine Standard Model (and constrain beyond-Standard-Model) parameters for the weak interaction. Michael is currently a NRC Postdoctoral Research Associate at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland, working on the aCORN neutron decay electron/neutrino angular correlation experiment, along with prototype fast neutron and reactor antineutrino detectors.