Associate professor of physics

Physics explains the world we live in - how apples fall, the way a boomerang returns, why a waterbug skims across the surface of a stream. "Physics is elegant and simple, elementary and basic," says Sally Koutsoliotas. "You only need a few basic principles, and you can explain so much."

As a researcher, Koutsoliotas studies neutrinos - elusive subatomic particles that populate the universe. The neutrino has no charge, and Koutsoliotas is trying to determine whether or not neutrinos have mass. She spends time during the summer months doing research at the Fermi National Accelerator lab (Fermilab) outside Chicago, which is the highest particle energy accelerator in the world. The work she does is referred to as high-energy physics, and she collaborates with 60 physicists from other institutions nationwide.

Each summer, Koutsoliotas brings three or four undergraduates with her. (She was one of the first researchers at Fermilab to bring undergrads.) "The first few years, my colleagues were resistant to the idea," she says. "But then they started asking me when some of the Bucknell students were coming back. "We have them testing the detectors andanalyzing data. The students get to see what high energy physics is like at a national lab.It's an amazing opportunity for them."

Teaching Areas

• Introductory physics
• Intermediate-level classical mechanics
• Quantum mechanics
• Advanced laboratory

Research Interests

• Particle physics
• Neutrino physics
• Quantum chaos

Recent Publications

• "A search for Muon-neutrino to Electron-neutrino and Muon-antineutrino to Electron-antineutrino Oscillations at NuTeV," The NuTeV Collaboration, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89 011804 (2002).
• "A Precise Determination of Electroweak Parameters in Neutrino-Nucleon Scattering," The NuTeV Collaboration, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88 091802 (2002).
• Sensitivity to the KARMEN Timing Anomaly at MiniBooNE, S. Case, S. Koutsoliotas, and M.L. Novak '03, Physical Review D, 65, p. 77701, 2002.
• Precise measurement of dimuon production cross sections in Fe and Fe deep inelastic scattering at the Fermilab Tevatron. The NuTeV Collaboration, Phys. Rev. D64 112006 (2001).

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