Dr. Douglas Wertepny

Dr. Wertepny’s PhD at Ohio State was in Physics, and he will be at the Department of Physics at Ben‑Gurion U. Dr. Wertepny’s research is in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). One of the earliest states of matter composing the universe is known as Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP). In this state, the building blocks of nuclear matter—quarks, anti-quarks, and gluons—are unbound and free to move about, and the QGP behaves as a nearly perfect fluid. Understanding the early evolution of the universe requires detailed knowledge about the properties and dynamics of QGP systems. But when scientists use heavy‑ion collisions to try to create a QGP, they have no method to differentiate QGP signals from non-QGP signals in their results.

Dr. Wertepny hopes to study the particle correlations originating from the initial interactions of heavy-ion collisions to help make this differentiation possible. He did a previous postdoc at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela in Spain, and he believes that both the research opportunities at Ben Gurion U and the potential for cultural growth while in Israel will help him become a better scientist.