JOHN BELZ portrait
  • Professor, Physics And Astronomy

Research Summary

Professor Belz’s interests span the scales from elementary particles to black holes. He studied weak interaction processes at accelerator labs and cosmic radiation at observatories in Utah’s western desert. A current project is based on the serendipitous discovery that cosmic ray detectors can shed light on gamma ray production in lightning. Recently he developed an interest in applying computational techniques to the study of gravitational collapse and the foundations of general relativity.

Education

  • PhD, Physics, Temple University. Project: A Search for the Decay of the Long-Lived Neutral Kaon into an Electron and a Positron

Biography

John Belz earned a Ph.D in Physics from Temple University in 1993, specializing in experimental high-energy physics. He was a postdoctoral researcher at Rutgers University until 1998, after which he held positions at Montana State University and the University of Montana. He came to the University of Utah in 2005 as a visiting faculty member, then held a research faculty position until he was appointed to the tenure track in 2014. He currently holds the title of Professor of Physics.