Janssens, Robert

Janssens, Robert
Edward G. Bilpuch Professor

Contact

Office: 248 Phillips Hall
Email: rvfj@email.unc.edu
Phone: (919) 843-8168
Web page:

Background

Education

• B.S., Majors in Physics and Education, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, 1973
• Ph.D., Experimental Nuclear Physics, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, 1978

Employment

• Edward G. Bilpuch Professor, Physics & Astronomy Dept., UNC Chapel Hill 2018-present
• Visiting Professor, Physics & Astronomy Dept., UNC Chapel Hill 10/2017-2018
• Senior Scientist, Argonne National Laboratory, 2017
• Director, Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 2007-2017
• Associate Division Director, Argonne National Laboratory, 2000-2007
• Scientific Director, ATLAS facility, Argonne National Laboratory, 2000-2011
• Senior Scientist, Argonne National Laboratory, 1994-2017
• Scientist, Argonne National Laboratory, 1984-1994
• Assistant Scientist, Argonne National Laboratory, 1981-1984

Research

A central goal of nuclear physics is to understand how nuclei are assembled, why some are stable and other decay, and how they interact with each other. The strong interaction that binds nuclei leads to a fascinating picture where the protons and neutrons manage to organize themselves and interesting phenomena emerge as a result, such as the appearance of nucleonic shells, saturation, rotation, superfluidity, and phase transitions. The essential challenge of our research is to understand how shell structure evolves on the proton- and neutron-rich sides of the valley of nuclear stability and to quantify the impact of this shell evolution on global nuclear properties such as the nuclear shape, the binding energy, and radioactivity. The work is carried with the High Intensity Gamma-Ray Source (HIgs) at the local Triangle University Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) as well as with the national user facilities, ATLAS at Argonne National Laboratory and the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at Michigan State University. We are also interested in the impact of structure and reaction dynamics on nuclear astrophysics processes, and in the development of new instrumentation.

Publications

Representative Publications

• Robert V. F. Janssens, “ELUSIVE MAGIC NUMBERS”, Nature 435, 897 (2005)
• R.V.F. Janssens, “UNEXPECTED DOUBLY MAGIC NUCLEUS”, Nature 459, 1069 (2009)
• R.V.F. Janssens, “TRACKING CHANGES IN SHELL STRUCTURE IN NEUTRON–RICH NUCLEI AS A FUNCTION OF SPIN”, Physica Scripta T 152, 014005 (2013)
• A. Gade, R.V.F. Janssens et al., “NUCLEAR STRUCTURE TOWARDS N = 40 60Ca: IN–BEAM g–RAY SPECTROSCOPY OF 58,60Ti”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 112503 (2014)
• B. Bucher, S. Zhu, C.Y. Wu, R.V.F. Janssens et al., “DIRECT EVIDENCE OF OCTUPOLE DEFORMATION IN NEUTRON–RICH 144Ba”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 112503 (2016)
• Richard C. Pardo, Guy Savard and Robert V. F. Janssens, “ATLAS WITH CARIBU: A LABORATORY PORTRAIT”, Nuclear Physics News 26, 6 (2016)
• A.D. Ayangeakaa, R.V.F. Janssens et al., “SHAPE COEXISTENCE AND THE ROLE OF AXIAL ASYMMETRY IN 72Ge”, Phys. Lett. B 754, 254 (2016)
• B. Bucher, S. Zhu, C.Y. Wu, R.V.F. Janssens et al., “DIRECT EVIDENCE FOR OCTUPOLE DEFORMATION IN 146Ba AND THE ORIGIN OF LARGE E1 MOMENT VARIATIONS IN REFLECTION–ASYMMETRIC NUCLEI”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 152504 (2017)
• S. Bottoni, S. Zhu, R.V.F. Janssens et al., “NUCLEON CORRELATIONS AND THE STRUCTURE OF 71Zn”, Phys. Lett. B 775, 271 (2017)
• A. M. Forney, W. B. Walters, C. J. Chiara, R. V. F. Janssens, et al., “A NOVEL DJ = 1 SEQUENCE IN 78Ge: POSSIBLE EVIDENCE FOR TRIAXIALITY”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 212501 (2018)