Menu Close
Professor of Physics and Analytics, University of the Pacific

James Hetrick is a professor and chair of the Physics Department at the University of the Pacific, as well as a Professor in Pacific's Data Analytics Masters degree program.

After finishing his Bachelor’s degree in Physics from Case Western Reserve University, Prof. Hetrick spent 13 months at the South Pole Station in Antarctica studying cosmic rays, the solar wind, the auroras, and the earth’s magnetosphere. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in theoretical particle physics and went on to hold postdoctoral research positions at ETH in Zürich, the University of Amsterdam, the University of Arizona, and Washington University in St. Louis, before coming to the University of the Pacific. At Pacific, Professor Hetrick teaches a wide variety of classes, including Cosmology and The Physics of Music.

In addition to his teaching and administrative roles, Prof. Hetrick is an active researcher in the field of lattice quantum chromo-dynamics (LQCD). Using supercomputers around the world, Prof. Hetrick simulates the physics of quarks and explores models of what the Higgs boson might really be. This work involves very high dimensional monte carlo calculations, state-of-the-art numerical linear algebra, and advanced methods of statistical analysis. Prof. Hetrick also built and maintains The Gauge Connection, one of the largest archives of LQCD data, available to researchers globally.

Experience

  • –present
    Professor of Physics and Analytics, University of the Pacific
  • Stockton, CA, USA
  • Article Feed
  • jhetrick@pacific.edu
  • Joined