Aaron Hurst
Research Scientist
Research Scientist
Dr. Aaron Hurst undertook a Ph. D. in nuclear physics under the supervision of Prof. Peter Butler at the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom. His thesis topic focused on low-energy Coulomb-excitation measurements using the Radioactive ion-beam Experiment Isotope Separator Online (REX-ISOLDE) facility at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. Upon receipt of his doctorate degree in 2007, he next embarked on a postdoctoral position with Dr. Mark Stoyer in the Experimental Nuclear Physics Group of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California. Here, he continued his work on exotic-beam nuclear physics at the Tri-University Meson Facility (TRIUMF), Canada's national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics located in Vancouver, British Columbia. Additionally, during this Fellowship period, he became involved in few-nucleon transfer-reaction measurements with heavy ions at the Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS) at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois.
From 2010 until the end of 2015, Dr. Hurst joined the Nuclear Science Division as a Physicist Project Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to work with Dr. Richard Firestone on neutron-capture measurements important for national security applications performed at thermal energies at the 10-MW Budapest Research Reactor at the Centre for Energy Research in Budapest, Hungary. This work was carried out in close collaboration with the Global Security Principal Directorate at LLNL. Since 2016, Dr. Hurst has been working in his present role as an Assistant Researcher in the Bay Area Nuclear Data (BAND) Program led by Prof. Lee Bernstein in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. His current research interests include statistical modeling of gamma-ray data produced in neutron-induced reactions and database infrastructure development in collaboration with researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).
A. M. Hurst, P. A. Butler, D. G. Jenkins et al., "Measurement of the Sign of the Spectroscopic Quadrupole Moment for the 21+ State in 70Se: No Evidence for Oblate Shape", Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 072501 (2007). doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.072501
J. Cederkall, A. Ekstrom, C. Fahlander, A. M. Hurst et al., "Sub-Barrier Coulomb Excitation of 110Sn and Its Implications for the 100Sn Shell Closure", Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 172501 (2007). doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.172501
A. M. Hurst, C. Y. Wu, J. A. Becker et al., "Narrowing of the neutron sd-pf shell gap in 29Na", Phys. Lett. B. 674, 168 (2009). doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2009.03.017
A. M. Hurst, C. Y. Wu, M. A. Stoyer et al., "Rotational alignments in 235Np and the possible role of j15/2 neutrons", Phys. Rev. C. 81, 014312 (2010). doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.81.014312
H. D. Choi, R. B. Firestone, M. S. Basunia, A. Hurst et al., "Radiative Capture Cross Sections of 155,157Gd for Thermal Neutrons", Nucl. Sci. Eng. 177, 219 (2014). doi:10.13182/NSE13-49
A. M. Hurst, R. B. Firestone, B. W. Sleaford et al., "Investigation of the tungsten isotopes via thermal neutron capture", Phys. Rev. C. 89, 014606 (2014). doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.89.014606
A. M. Hurst, N. C. Summers, L.Szentmiklosi et al., "Determination of the effective sample thickness via radiative capture", Nucl. Instrum. Meth. Phys. Res. Sect. B. 362, 38 (2015). doi:10.1016/j.nimb.2015.09.003
A. M. Hurst, R. B. Firestone, L. Szentmiklosi et al., "Radiative thermal neutron-capture cross section for the 180W(n,γ) reaction and determination of the neutron-separation energy", Phys. Rev. C. 92, 034615 (2015). doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.92.034615
M. S. Basunia and A. M. Hurst, "Nuclear Data Sheets for A=26", Nucl. Data Sheets 134, 1 (2016). doi:10.1016/j.nds.2016.04.001
D. A. Matters, A. G. Lerch, A. M. Hurst et al., "Investigation of 186Re via thermal-neutron capture on 185Re", Phys. Rev. C. 93, 054319 (2016). doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.93.054319
A. M. Hurst, R. B. Firestone, B. W. Sleaford et al., "Developments in capture-gamma libraries for nonproliferation applications", Eur. Phys. J. Web of Conf. 146, 09008 (2017). doi:10.1051/epjconf/201714609008
A. M. Hurst, A. Sweet, B. L. Goldblum et al., "Radiative-capture cross sections for the 139La(n,γ) reaction using thermal neutrons and structural properties of 140La", Phys. Rev. C. 99, 024310 (2019). doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.99.024310