Biography:Claude Pruneau

Template:Infobox scientist Claude Pruneau (born November 9, 1960) is a Canadian-American experimental high-energy nuclear physicist. He is a professor of physics at Wayne State University and the author of several books. He is best known for his work on particle correlation measurements in heavy ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and the Large Hadron Collider.

Career

Pruneau is a French Canadian native born in Quebec City. He completed his studies at Universite Laval where he earned a Ph.D. in physics in 1987. He worked as research fellow successively for the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited and McGill University (Montreal). He joined the Wayne State University Faculty in 1992 where he is now professor. He conducts an active research program on the search and study of the Quark Gluon Plasma at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. Pruneau is also visiting professor at the Mumbai Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). Pruneau is a member of the American Physical Society, the Canadian Association of Physicists, and the Union of Concerned Scientists. He enjoys teaching at both the Graduate and Undergraduate levels, as well as offering lectures for the larger public. Pruneau was acting director of the Wayne State Planetarium. In this capacity, he delivered numerous public lectures on various scientific topics, including the extinction of dinosaurs, the production and use of energy, and the study of the quark gluon plasma, including a TedX talk.

One of Pruneau's best known scientific contribution is the analysis and interpretation of two and three particle correlations produced in heavy ion collisions towards the understanding of the dynamics and chemistry of the QCD matter produced in these collisions. Pruneau played a leading role in the development of two and three particle correlation function measurements to identify signatures of the formation of Quark Gluon Plasma in ultra-high energy heavy-ion collisions. Additionally, within the context of the STAR collaboration, Pruneau lead the design, development, and deployment of event reconstruction software to transform raw data produced by the experiment into kinematical quantities suitable for physics analysis of the heavy-ion collisions studied by the collaboration.

Pruneau participated to several experiments at the Brookaven National Laboratory (BNL) Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS), including experiments E814, E877, and E864 that were among the first collaborations to explore the possibility of producing Quark Gluon Plasma matter in heavy ion collisions at AGS beam energies. In the last two decades, Pruneau focussed his efforts on the STAR experiment at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. In STAR in contributed to the experiment's online system and later lead the team that created the track reconstruction software used by members of the collaboration to transform raw detector data into kinematical quantities suitable for physics analysis of the heavy-ion collisions studied by the collaboration. Pruneau is best known for his scientific contributions towards the analysis and interpretation of two and three particle correlations produced in heavy ion collisions and towards the understanding of the dynamics and chemistry of the QCD matter produced in these collisions.

His recent work include studies of transverse momentum dependent two particle correlators designed to determine the shear viscosity of the quark gluon plasma produced in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC.

Pruneau is best known for his scientific contributions towards the analysis and interpretation of two and three particle correlations produced in heavy ion collisions and towards the understanding of the dynamics and chemistry of the QCD matter produced in these collisions.

Selected publications

Books

• A. Claude A. Pruneau, Data Analysis Techniques for Physical Scientists, Published Fall 2017, Cambridge University Press
• A. Seeds, Backman, Pruneau, Foundations of Astronomy, 3rd Edition, Wayne State Special Edition with 3 chapters from future book Exploring Astronomy; Book used in AST2010 (2016)
• B. Seeds, Backman, Pruneau, Foundations of Astronomy, 2nd Edition, Wayne State Special Edition with 3 chapters from future book Exploring Astronomy; Book used in AST2010 (2014)
• C. Seeds, Backman, Pruneau, Foundations of Astronomy, Wayne State Special Edition with 3 chapters from future book Exploring Astronomy; Book used in AST2010 (2013)

Awards and honors

• Charles H. Gershenson Distinguished Faculty Fellowship 2024 award
• Fellow of the American Physical Society, 2022
• Board of Governors Faculty Recognition Awards, 2019
• Research funded by the US Department of Energy/Nuclear Science Office
• Fellowship FCAR (Quebec), 1986
• Fellowship National Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Ph.D.), 1984-1986
• Fellowship National Sciences and Engineering Research Council (M. Sc.), 1983-1984
• Wayne State University, College of Science Teaching Award 2003.
• Wayne State University 2006 President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching
• Nominated for the Michigan President Council Excellence in Teaching award (2007)
• Richard J. Barber Faculty/Staff Recognition Award, Department of Physics (2009)
• 2019 Wayne State University Board of Governors Faculty Recognition Award
  
• 2009 Wayne State University Department of Physics' Richard J Barber Faculty Award
  
• 2006 Wayne State University President's Award for Excellence in Teaching

Citation index

Up to date citation index at INSPIRE: 732 papers found, 720 of them citeable.

Citation summary results citeable papers published only. Average citations per paper: 118.

Breakdown of papers by citations:

• Renowned papers (500+) 27
• Famous papers (250-499) 57
• Very well-known papers (100-249) 143
• Well-known papers (50-99) 145
• Known papers (10-49) 212
• Less known papers (1-9) 104

hHEP index [?] 151

External links

• Claude Pruneau's publications indexed by INSPIRE-HEP

Source attribution: Biography:Claude Pruneau