A distinguished theorist in physics and astrophysics, Haxton was on the staff of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory before joining the faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he is now professor of physics. He became director of the nuclear theory institute in 1991.
Neutrinos pervade all space as ghostly relics of the big bang.
These mystery particles have little or no mass, no charge, hardly ever interact, and yet they are the objects of intense study by physicists. The other scientific talks by Haxton in the Bethe Lecture series will be physics colloquia, which will be open to the public. He will discuss the current status and possible resolutions of the solar neutrino puzzle. The metals found the Milky Way galaxy are fossil evidence of the frequency and variety of past supernovae. Haxton will describe the supernova mechanism and explain fundamental physics, such as new neutrino properties.