About Me

 
I am a Senior Research Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), working in the field of theoretical high energy physics. LBNL was founded in 1931 by Ernest Orlando
Lawrence, who invented the cyclotron, and is now one of the largest national laboratories in the country. Its close affiliation with the best public university in the country, UC Berkeley, makes it an especially attractive place for science. Before coming to LBNL in 2005, I studied physics at the University of Karlsruhe, finishing with a Diplom in physics under the supervision of Thomas Mannel. I then went to graduate school at the University of Toronto and obtained my PhD in 2000 working with Michael Luke. Before coming to LBNL, I held research appointments at UC San Diego and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).


Particle physics studies the forces between the smallest building blocks of nature, quarks and leptons. Since about 1970, the standard model of particle physics has successfully described all of these interactions, combining the electro-magnetic, the strong and the weak forces of nature. While the electro-magnetic force is well known and is responsible to well known effects such as electricity and magnetism, the strong and the weak force are less known, but equally as important. For example, without the strong force, the atomic nucleus would not stick together, while absence of the weak force would not allow stars to burn. While the standard model has passed every
experimental test it has been subjected to, it can not explain most of the mass we find in the universe. Current research in particle physics aims at unravelling this staggering deficiency of the standard model.


My research is in theoretical particle physics, and in particular I am working on developing and applying theoretical tools to aid the interpretation of experimental data obtained at collider experiments. At the beginning of my career I have worked mostly on the interpretation of B decay data, which was measured at two e+ e- colliders; Babar, located at SLAC in California, and Belle, located at KEK in Japan. Currently, I am devoting all my time to the data being collected at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland, which is probing our understanding of the universe at energies previously unattainable.


Besides physics, I have several other hobbies. I have started sailing in 2002, and there really is no better area to sail than the San Francisco Bay. It has very consistent winds, especially
in the summer. On top of that, the local geography gives rise to very strong currents, making sailing very challenging here. But that of course is part of the fun. Besides sailing, I enjoy running, I have completed several half marathon races, and I am working my way up to my first full marathon. My favorite race is the Big Sur Half Marathon, with a beautiful race course along the pacific ocean. Finally, I will never say no to hanging out with friends, going for some wine tasting in the wonderful wine regions north of San Francisco, or simply having a good dinner and drinking a good bottle of wine.
 

Contact information:

Dr. Christian W Bauer, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, M/S 50A5104, Berkeley, CA 94720

Email: cwbauer@lbl.gov, Phone: (510) 486-7773, Fax: (510) 486-4608

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