Daniel Phillips grew up in Adelaide, South Australia, where he
attended the Flinders University of South Australia, gaining both his
B.Sc. (Hons.), and his Ph.D. there. In 1995 he took a post-doctoral
position at the University of Maryland, and in 1998 he became a
Research Assistant Professor at the University of Washington in
Seattle. He joined the faculty at Ohio University as an Assistant
Professor in 2000.
Phillips develops theories of the atomic nucleus. His research seeks to understand the forces between the neutrons and protons inside the nucleus. He builds models which describe the outcome of experiments in which beams of electrons and/or photons are directed on nuclei containing two or three neutrons and protons and the products of the collision are detected. The pattern of the scattering reveals information on the arrangement of the nucleus's constitutents, and, if the energy of the beam is high enough, on the structure of the neutrons and protons themselves. Consequently, these investigations are pertinent to the development of a connection between the theory of nuclei and the underlying theory that describes the quarks and gluons which exist inside the neutrons and protons. The 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics was awared for work on this underlying theory, which is known as Quantum Chromodynamics. The experiments Phillips seeks to understand take place at various facilities around the world including the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, VA; the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboatory in Durham, NC; and the MAX-Lab facility in Lund, Sweden.
When asked about his teaching philosophy, Phillips said, ``Physics is for people who like to ask `Why':`Why is the sky blue?' `Why are there three dimensions of space and one of time?' `Why do nuclei hold together?' `Why does the Sun shine?'. When I teach I want my students to ask `Why' about all sorts of stuff in the natural world. If they do that more when they finish taking my class than they did when they started, then I am happy.''
Phillip's favorite quote outside of science: ``The race for quality has no finish line, so technically it's more like a death march.'', www.despair.com.
Phillips received the U.S. Department of Energy's ``Outstanding Junior Investigator Award'' in 2002.
Phillips follows the Australian cricket team avidly through the Internet. In his time away from physics he enjoys movies and participating in the life of his church, Central Avenue United Methodist.
