Alumni Profiles Series: Roger Byrd

Dr. Roger Byrd received his bachelor’s degree in physics from Georgia Tech in 1972 and his Ph.D. in nuclear physics from Duke in 1978. To continue his studies of the physics behind the difference between neutrons and protons, he next did a postdoc at Indiana University. After transitioning to Los Alamos National Lab, he adapted that background to nuclear treaty monitoring and planetary physics, using neutron and other radiation detectors that orbit the Earth as well as the Moon or other planets. He later went to Washington, D.C. as an advisor for treaty monitoring programs, and he presently works in the classification office at Sandia National Lab.

What has your career path looked like?

As a North Carolina local, I spent a year at NC State studying electrical engineering and then transferred to Georgia Tech for the next three years, graduating in 1972 with a major in physics. After that, I went to Duke for the physics Ph.D. program and stayed on for an assistant professorship, in which I had the opportunity to teach undergraduate introductory physics courses. Following graduation in 1978, I went to Indiana University as a postdoc to work on their cyclotron, which was the best place at the time for nuclear physics. There, I studied the mysteries of protons and neutrons, which are almost identical in mass, but protons have a charge. (This was before we knew that they are made of different quarks, which is why they behave differently.)

After my postdoc, I worked at Los Alamos National Lab (LANL), where I worked in nuclear treaty monitoring. The particle accelerator at LANL worked at higher energies than the one at Indiana, providing the potential to work on experiments with greater scope and impact. Eventually, I earned an MBA and worked for three years in Washington, D.C. as a technical advisor for nuclear treaty monitoring. Currently, I work at Sandia National Lab (SNL) in the classification office, where I see different applications of treaty monitoring and nuclear deterrence. I read dozens of papers a week, scrutinizing them to verify that no classified information is getting released by mistake. My background in teaching and business put me in a unique position in the classification office. I had experience in teaching people physics and my work in a way they can understand, which is similar to how I help interpret and apply Sandia’s classification rules to topics that come my way.

How does nuclear treaty monitoring work?

It all started with finding water on Mars! As I mentioned earlier, LANL had a high-energy particle accelerator, allowing us to do an experiment that verified our predictions of the energies of the neutrons observable in orbit around Mars. Basically, cosmic rays hitting the planet cause nuclear reactions that release neutrons, and those neutrons will eventually scatter down to thermal energies. If there is water on the planet, there will be a lot of unbound protons sitting in hydrogen, which will trap neutrons at the same thermal energy that the protons have. Therefore, as it flies around the planet, if there’s water your detector would see a large increase in the number of counts from thermal neutrons leaking out from the planet.

What does this have to do with treaty monitoring? Well, if we can detect water (i.e., an increase in the thermal neutron counts) on a completely different planet, then we can similarly detect the neutrons that result from a country violating a nuclear treaty. In short, detecting a nuclear detonation uses the same science and engineering as finding water on Mars; there is a definite change in the number of neutrons a detector sees, as well as changes in the detected gamma-ray and x‑ray energy distributions, which I also worked on. Other physicists and engineers have developed detectors for other characteristic signals that are produced by a nuclear detonation.

To provide nuclear treaty monitoring full-time and world-wide, GPS satellites carry nuclear detectors as well as atomic clocks, which are among the most precise clocks in the world. By comparing the arrival times of the signals as seen on at least different four satellites, we can pinpoint when and where a nuclear detonation might have occurred. We can then use the consistency of the signal amplitudes to estimate the size of the detonation and to eliminate the possibility of false alarms. The result has been more than half a century with no above-ground nuclear tests.

Image

How do national labs view research and basic science? Is there a mission-oriented ideology?

At LANL, there is a large amount of work in basic science that is spread throughout the organization. There is a strong emphasis on everyone doing both research and applications at the same time. At Sandia, the different objectives are a bit more clearly defined. Essentially, there is one large division specifically for fundamental science and engineering, while the rest of the Lab exploits the applications of that research and development. Common to both national labs, however, there exists the need to be among the best in all these fields—simply because there are clearly consequences of falling behind your competitors in any of them.

What career advice do you have for current graduate students?

I suggest working in different places that do cutting-edge research, and always keep in mind the applications for the work that you do. Get internship experience somewhere else! You will not be able to see all the potential applications of your science until you work in these environments. Additionally, finding ways to connect basic science with applications is an important skill to develop. For example, when trying to obtain research funding, a scientist needs to frame their research within a larger purpose and motivation.  

Don’t just follow the straight and narrow track of going from undergrad, to graduate school, and then postdoc. Look to the left and right and behind you to get experience in different environments. Just like in research, the answer is rarely straight in front of you.

What were some of your favorite memories when working at Duke?

My favorite part of teaching at Duke was the students. Duke students are extremely hard-working, high-level learners. I exploited those aptitudes with an independent way of learning by appearing to get out of their way and let them discuss and teach themselves. That objective cultivated a “think for yourself” approach, rather than a memorization method that would not work for students who were often going on to graduate school. The most important foundation you can have in graduate school is the ability to think for yourself.

---

AUTHOR

Image

Isabella Goetting

Ph.D. candidate, Physics

Isabella Goetting is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the physics department at Duke. She studies trapped ion quantum computing in Christopher Monroe’s lab. Along with her research, Isabella values science communication and increasing diversity and equity within the physics and the broader STEM communities. Outside of physics, she enjoys powerlifting, reading, and spending time with friends and her dog, Dakota.