Kevin McFarland

Biographical Summary

Kevin McFarland received his Ph.D. in experimental particle physics from the University of Chicago in 1994. He held a Lederman Fellowship at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) from 1994 to 1998. He then joined the faculty of University of Rochester where he is now Professor of Physics. McFarland was named an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in 1998, a Department of Energy Outstanding Junior Investigator in 1999, a Cottrell Scholar in 2001, and received a National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2002. He was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2005. He and his collaborators on the T2K neutrino experiment are recipients of the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in 2015. McFarland served on the long-range planning subpanel of the joint Department of Energy and National Science Foundation High Energy Physics Advisory Panel, was a long-term Advisory Committee member for the QuarkNet educational outreach program. He recently joined Fermilab’s Physics Advisory Committee. McFarland recently completed a two-year term as co-chair of the University of Rochester’s faculty Senate.

McFarland's research interests are in the field of experimental high-energy physics. His current focus is the study of neutrino properties and their weak interactions. The ultimate goal of these high intensity accelerator-based neutrino experiments is determination of the neutrino masses and the mixing between neutrino flavors and these masses through neutrino flavor oscillation measurements. Violations of matter-antimatter symmetry may be possible in neutrino mixings, and they may offer an explanation for the origin of the dominance of matter over antimatter in today's Universe. He was a founding scientific co-spokesperson of the MINERvA Neutrino Experiment at Fermilab, which seeks to precisely measure neutrino interactions in order to improve current and future precision neutrino oscillation experiments. He also works on the T2K experiment at J-PARC in Japan which was the first of the current experiments to observe muon to the electron neutrino flavor transitions which hold the key to the matter-antimatter differences that may be present in neutrinos. He previously worked on electroweak and top quark physics at the CDF experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron collider and studied neutrino neutral current interactions at high precision in the NuTeV high energy neutrino experiment at Fermilab.

Candidate Statement

In my lifetime, the achievements in basic and applied physics research have been spectacular. Findings and techniques from this work have had broad application throughout society and today touch on nearly every aspect of our everyday life. Curiosity, interest, and respect for science among the public remains strong, and our government and industries continue to make remarkable investments in basic science. At the same time, many in the public sphere and government have recently questioned the value of science and education, and some have advocated a radical disinvestment in science.

Strong leadership from APS is needed to positively counter these voices. My recent experience leading the faculty Senate at the University of Rochester has reaffirmed my belief that the strongest leadership is inclusive of and welcoming to a diversity of voices and opinions from physicists of all ages, backgrounds, and areas of scientific interest. Such leadership can garner new interest in and commitment to advocacy organizations like APS. As chair-elect of the nominating committee, it would be my goal to help the nominating committee to identify candidates for APS offices who would embody these values, and therefore strengthen the ability of APS to speak on behalf of our community of scholars.

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