Carlos Bertulani, Ph.D.

Professor

Neutron stars, the big bang and other out-of-this-world topics. Carlos Bertulani, Ph.D., works internationally to make discoveries considered groundbreaking in the field of physics. A combination of his ability to work closely with students and his multiple research interests has opened many eyes to new possibilities.

A Conversation with Dr. Bertulani

What would you tell a student who is thinking about attending A&M-Commerce?

One student who moved on to a larger university told me that he missed A&M-Commerce because we gave him a space and worked closely with him. There are pros to attending a smaller university; you don't just blend in.

What has been you favorite course to teach?

That's a very hard question because I like everything that I teach. However, I once taught a class with 300 students from multiple disciplines. Although it was a large class and came with challenges, it was fun because there were many demonstrations, like how to make a simple rocket, and showing them things such as jumping/magnetic rings.

Tell us about a project you are currently working on or recently completed.

One of the projects I worked on was a paper on the modification of statistics of distribution of velocities of nuclei in plasma during the big bang. It's accepted, but different from what people had used before. We were able to come up with this calculation that could explain the discrepancy between astronomical observations and theoretical predictions for the lithium abundance in the universe.

Educational Background

• Ph.D., University of Bonn, Germany, 1987
• M.Sc., Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1983
• B.S., Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1980

Awards and Honors

• Guggenheim Fellow, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
• Fulbright Scholar, Fulbright Program
• Fellow, American Physics Society
• Visiting Professor, ExtreMe Matter Institute (EMMI)
• Visiting Professor, Helmholtz International Center for FAIR

Research Interests

• Big bang nucleosynthesis
• Nuclear astrophysics
• Nuclear physics

Professional Organizations

• Chair, Committee on Education of the American Physical Society
• Chair, Texas Section, American Physical Society
• Secretary/Treasurer, American Physical Society’s Forum on International Physics

Selected Publications

• Fission of relativistic nuclei with fragment excitation and reorientation, Carlos A. Bertulani, Yasemin Kucuk, and Radomira Lozeva, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 132301 (2020).
• Frontiers in Nuclear Astrophysics, C.A. Bertulani and T. Kajino, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. 89, 56 (2016).
• Fixing the big bang cosmological problem, C.A. Bertulani, AIP Conf. Proc. 2076, 030003 (2019).
• On the existence of Rydberg nuclear molecules, C. A. Bertulani, T. Frederico and M. S. Hussein, Phys. Letters B 774, 247 (2017).
• Peeling off neutron skins from neutron-rich nuclei: Constraints on the symmetry energy from neutron-removal cross sections, T. Aumann, C.A. Bertulani, F. Schindler, S. Typel, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 262501 (2017).

A tribute to Airman 1C
(I think of you every single day)

Daniel Bertulani

Useful Resource Links

• Physics Journals and Databases
• American Physical Society (APS)
• American Institute of Physics (AIP)
• American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT)

• NPR Interview
• The Big Bang Theory (yes, the TV series but with real physics – in Azores, Portugal)
• Our research on Big Bang & Tsallis Statistics featured on Chinese News CCTV