He served as assistant physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory from 1955 until 1958, when he accepted an appointment as assistant professor of physics at Princeton University. In 1971 he returned to the University of Chicago as professor of physics. Cronin is a member of the National Academy of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Science, and is a fellow of the American Physical Society. The Auger Project consortium began construction earlier this year on a cosmic ray observatory in Argentina that will consist of 1,600 particle detector stations arranged in a giant grid covering 3,000 square kilometers, an area about 10 times the size of the city of Paris. Dr. David Nitz of Michigan Tech is a member of the Pierre Auger team.
Cosmic rays are fast-moving atomic nuclei that bombard the earth from outer space.
They travel at nearly the speed of light, indicating they have very high energy. Although scientists can account for the origin of most cosmic rays, no one knows the source of the highest-energy cosmic ray particles, which have energies more than a million times greater than the particles produced in the world's most powerful particle accelerator. We have been working with agencies and governments around the world for four years to reach this moment. Cronin is the author of 62 professional papers on physics and 15 invited conference reports. In 1994 he was honored with the University of Chicago's Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.