William Allen Zajc

William Allen Zajc

Research Interest

I received my B.S. degree from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1975, and my Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1982. Following a postdoctoral and junior faculty position at the University of Pennsylvania, I came to Columbia in January, 1987.

Throughout my career, I have studied high energy collisions of protons and "heavy ions" (nuclei), with an emphasis both on understanding the underlying mechanisms of particle production and searching for unusual states of matter such as the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). For much more information see my personal website referenced below.

Currently I am teaching Physics 3007/3008 (Electromagnetism). Prior to that I taught Physics 4021/4022 (Quantum Mechanics). Several years ago I created a one-semester course String Theory for Undergraduates, based on Barton Zwiebach's superb text A First Course in String Theory.

There are many stories about me. Some of them may even be true.