Peter Garbincius
2025 Sigma Xi Fellow
For his distinguished contributions to particle physics through pioneering research on the properties of quark-containing particles and for his exemplary leadership and outreach at Fermilab, fostering public understanding and engagement with fundamental science.
Biography
Peter H. Garbincius is an experimental elementary particle physicist. He attained his B.S. from Manhattan College (1970), his Ph.D. from Cornell University (1974), and was a Research Associate in the Laboratory for Nuclear Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1974-1976). Except for a brief sabbatical leave at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC, 1984), he spent his entire career at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab,1976-2020). At retirement, he was appointed a Fermilab Scientist Emeritus.
His personal research activities included the study of the spectra of elementary particles produced in fixed target experiments with pion, kaon, proton, anti-proton, neutron, electron, and photon beams, the search for long-lived particles produced by proton beams, the search for photinos (the supersymmetric SUSY partners of photons) in e+e- annihilations at SLAC, properties of photoproduced particles containing charm quarks, and the study of particles containing bottom quarks and exotic (4-quark mesons and 5-quark baryons) in proton-antiproton annihilations at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider.
In his 43+ years at Fermilab, Peter held many positions in the Research Division, the Accelerator Division, and in the Directorate, among them: Head of the Research Division, Deputy Head of the Accelerator Division, Chairman of the Fermilab Committee on Scientific Appointments, member of the ILC Global Design Effort (ILC GDE), Chairman of the Council of Directors for the Dark Energy Survey, Interim Associate Director for Research for Project Oversight, Head of Program and Project Support, Head of the Muon Accelerator R&D Department, Co-Chairman of the Lee Teng Summer Internship in Accelerator Science and Technology. He performed many of the management and technical tasks needed to support a national laboratory, an accelerator complex, and a large user-based experimental program.
In 1985, upon realizing that the cost of conventional readout electronics would become prohibitively expensive for upcoming large-scale silicon strip detectors, Dr. Garbincius founded the Fermilab ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) Development Group which would evolve into the Microelectronics Group, one of Fermilab’s technological pillars.
In the mid-1980’s, Dr. Garbincius initiated and for 25 years led Ask-a-Scientist, a Sunday afternoon program to introduce visitors (our patrons) to Fermilab, to what we do, and to science in general. In addition to lectures for the general public and tours of the Fermilab facilities, Ask-a-Scientist featured casual, informal, one-on-one, face-to-face, personal interactions between visitors and scientists, allowing for extended discussion, follow-up questions, and consideration of any topics brought up by the visitors. This also provided valuable experience for young scientists in meeting and interacting with members of the public.
Dr. Garbincius’ honors include: Undergraduate: Sigma Pi Sigma (Physics Honor Society) and Sigma Xi – The Scientific Research Honor Society; NSF Graduate Fellowship; Fellow of the American Physical Society (1994); Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Physics – AAAS (2024); and Fellow of Sigma Xi – The Scientific Research Honor Society (2025).