Spotlight: The Making of a Particle Physicist

Name: Sheldon Stone
Job Title: Professor of Physics

Educational Background:
B.S. Brooklyn College

PhD. University of Rochester

How long have you been working in the field of high energy physics? 28 years.

Why did you choose high energy physics as a career path? It is the most exciting field of physics, on the cutting edge of science.

Were there any barriers that you had to overcome in order to pursue high energy physics as a career? I had to learn a lot.

Before coming to SU, what other types of experience in this field did you have? I was a graduate student at University of Rochester, then worked as a research associate where I spent time at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. I spent a few years as an Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt, then went to Cornell University which had a wonderful accelerator and in 1990 became a Professor of Physics at Syracuse.

Was there any person or event that inspired you to follow this career path? No.

Is there any advice you may have for today's high school students regarding a career in the sciences? Doing research, discovering new phenomena is very very interesting. In an academic setting you also get to apply what you have learned in research toward teaching, which gets a new generation involved and is also very rewarding.