Ani Aprahamian

Ani Aprahamian (born August 15, 1958) is a Lebanese-born Armenian-American nuclear physicist.[3] She has taught at the University of Notre Dame since 1989. She is currently Freimann Professor of Physics at Notre Dame.[4][5] She has been director of the Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory (Yerevan Physics Institute) in Armenia since April 2018, the first woman to hold the position.[6]

Ani Aprahamian
Born (1958-08-15) August 15, 1958[1]
Lebanon
NationalityArmenian
EducationClark University (PhD, 1986)
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Scientific career
FieldsNuclear physics, astrophysics[1][2]
InstitutionsUniversity of Notre Dame
Websitephysics.nd.edu/people/faculty/ani-aprahamian/

Background

Aprahamian was born on August 15, 1958[1] in Lebanon to Armenian parents.[6] All of her grandparents were survivors of the Armenian Genocide,[6][7] while her parents were born in refugee camps in Beirut.[4] Her family moved to the United States when she was 11 and settled in Massachusetts.[3] Her father worked as a tailor, while her mother a seamstress.[3] She was interested in science as a young kid, but initially wanted to become an ambassador, but was persuaded by a high school guidance counselor in Worcester, Massachusetts to get an education in science.[3] She speaks Western Armenian.[8]

She obtained her BA from Clark University in 1980 and PhD in nuclear chemistry in 1986.[2][5] She was a postdoctoral fellow at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.[5]

Career

An experimental nuclear physicist,[5] Aprahamian's research focuses on the "evolution of nuclear structure and the impact of various structure effects on stellar and explosive astrophysical processes"[2] and the "origins of the heavy elements in the universe and the structure of neutron rich nuclei far from stability."[5] She maintains "strong interests in the applications of nuclear science to energy and medicine."[5]

As of late 2019, she has given over 200 talks and various conferences and has over 200 publications in journals and book chapters.[7]

University of Notre Dame

Aprahamian joined the faculty of the Physics Department and the Nuclear Science Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame in 1989.[5][3] Aprahamian was the only female nuclear physicist at Notre Dame for 27 years.[3]

She was the director of Notre Dame's Nuclear Science Laboratory from 2001 to 2006 and chair of Notre Dame's Physics Department in 2003–2006.[9] As of 2014, she had mentored some 10 postdoctoral fellows and 17 graduate students.[5] She is currently the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Physics.[3]

At the lab, Aprahamian led her team of 20 physicists' research on the overlap between nuclear physics and astrophysics using two particle accelerators.[3]

Elsewhere

Aprahamian has served on U.S. and international committees on nuclear science.[7] Aprahamian is a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) since 1999[10] and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) since 2008.[11][5] Between 2006 and 2008 she was the Program Director for Nuclear Physics and Particle & Nuclear Astrophysics at the National Science Foundation in Washington.[9][3] In 2014 she served as a member of the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee of the United States Department of Energy.[9][12] In the same year she served as chair of the APS Division of Nuclear Physics.[9]

In 2016–17 she served as co-chair U.S. Electron–ion collider Facility Study.[13]

She was a member of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics executive committee,[14] the American Chemical Society's Division of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology.[5] She has also served as chair of the scientific council at GANIL, the French national nuclear physics research center.[3] She was on the advisory board of Physics Today, the magazine of the American Institute of Physics.[5]

Armenia

Aprahamian "holds deep feelings for Armenia."[4] She was elected a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia in 2008.[1][5] In November 2017 she met Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan.[15] She was appointed director of the Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory (Yerevan Physics Institute, YerPhI) in April 2018.[7][6][16] She became the first woman and the first diaspora Armenian to hold the position.[6][7] In September 2018 she declared that a cyclotron will be put into operation for medical use.[17] It was put into operation in July 2019 and is used primarily for positron-emission tomography (PET) scans in cancer detection. Aprahamian stated: "This is a game changer for Armenia."[4] In a 2019 interview she stated that Armenia needs a "major reorganization" in science and that the country's "biggest challenges are in creating the opportunities and rewards that enable young scientists to stay in Armenia and to thrive here instead of traveling abroad."[18]

Selected publications

Aprahamian's most cited articles according to Google Scholar are:[19]

References
  1. "Ani Aprahamyan". sci.am. National Academy of Sciences of Armenia. Archived from the original on 21 February 2020.
  2. "Ani Aprahamian". physics.nd.edu. University of Notre Dame. Archived from the original on 25 July 2019.
  3. "Women Lead: Ani Aprahamian". womenlead2016.nd.edu. University of Notre Dame. Archived from the original on 21 February 2020.
  4. McCool, Deanna Csomo (July 17, 2019). "Notre Dame physicist launches operations of cyclotron in Armenia". science.nd.edu. University of Notre Dame. Archived from the original on 21 February 2020.
  5. "Ani Aprahamian" (PDF). science.osti.gov. U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information. 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 February 2020.
  6. "Head of Armenia's National Science Lab Aprahamian to Speak at MIT". The Armenian Mirror-Spectator. November 1, 2018. Archived from the original on 1 November 2018.
  7. "SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND EDUCATION IN ARMENIA ~ A Conversation with Prof. Ani Aprahamian". naasr.org. National Association for Armenian Studies and Research. January 12, 2020. Archived from the original on 21 February 2020.
  8. "After Midnight: Ani Aprahamyan". 1tv.am. Public Television of Armenia. 29 May 2019.
  9. "Ani Aprahamian Full CV" (PDF). physics.nd.edu. University of Notre Dame. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 February 2020.
  10. "APS Fellow Archive". American Physical Society. Archived from the original on 21 February 2020. Aprahamian, Ani [1999] University of Notre Dame Citation: For showing the existence of multiphonon vibrational excitations in the low-energy spectra of both spherical and deformed nuclei. Nominated by: Division of Nuclear Physics
  11. "AAAS Fellows" (PDF). aaas.org. American Association for the Advancement of Science. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 November 2019.
  12. "NSAC members 2014". science.osti.gov. U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information. Archived from the original on 21 February 2020.
  13. Goethals, Shelly (October 18, 2016). "Aprahamian to co-chair U.S. Electron Ion Collider Facility Study". science.nd.edu. University of Notre Dame. Archived from the original on 22 February 2020.
  14. "Ani Aprahamian". jinaweb.org. Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics. Archived from the original on 22 February 2020.
  15. "President Sargsyan receives renowned scientists Yuri Oganessian and Ani Aprahamian". Armenpress. 6 November 2017. Archived from the original on 21 February 2020.
  16. Daghdigian, Hovsep (May 9, 2018). "New Armenian President Visits Yerevan Physics Institute". Armenian Weekly. Archived from the original on 12 August 2019.
  17. Sirekanyan, Tigran (22 September 2018). "Cyclotron to be put into operation in Armenia until end of year". Armenpress. Archived from the original on 21 February 2020.
  18. Hakobyan, Gohar (October 8, 2019). "A major reorganization is needed across Armenia". Aravot. Archived from the original on 21 February 2020.
  19. "Ani Aprahamian". scholar.google.com. Google Scholar.
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