Given the question: Facts: - residence: united states - doctoral students: anne john chen , megan connors sickles , matt nguyen , mike mccumber , - known for: relativistic heavy ion collisions , phenix spokesperson - fields: physics , nuclear physics - workplaces: los alamos national laboratory stony brook university - doctoral advisor: gary westfall - awards: j.r. national academy of sciences oppenheimer fellow fellow of the american physics society - name: barbara jacak - nationality: united states - birth place: california - alma mater: michigan state university national superconducting cyclotron laboratory Based on these bullet points, write a short biography describing the life of barbara jacak .
The answer is:
barbara jacak -lrb- -rrb- is a nuclear physicist who uses heavy ion collisions for fundamental studies of hot , dense nuclear matter .she is a member of the department of physics and astronomy at stony brook university , where she holds the rank of distinguished professor .she is a leading member of the collaboration that built and operates the phenix detector , one of the large detectors currently operating at the relativistic heavy ion collider at brookhaven national laboratory , and was involved in the discovery of the quark gluon plasma and its strongly coupled , liquid-like behavior .throughout her career she has served on many advisory committees and boards including the national research council committee on nuclear physics , and the physical review c editorial board .