David Kaplan wins 2018 Gemant Award from the American Institute of Physics

The American Institute of Physics announced today that particle physicist and movie producer David Kaplan has won the 2018 Andrew Gemant Award, an annual prize recognizing contributions to the cultural, artistic and humanistic dimension of physics.

The award includes a cash prize of $5,000 and a grant of $3,000 to further the public communication of physics at an institution of Kaplan's choice.

Currently, Kaplan is a professor in the physics and astronomy department at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Kaplan is known in the world of particle physics for his work on the theoretical underpinnings of the Higgs boson, for his work on asymmetric dark matter and for experimental search strategies now being implemented at the Large Hadron Collider. The Gemant Award recognizes Kaplan's achievements as the producer of "Particle Fever," a documentary about the Large Hadron Collider's first discoveries.

"We are absolutely thrilled to present Dr. Kaplan with this year's Gemant award," said AIP CEO Michael Moloney. "His work captures the fundamental human experience at CERN's Large Hadron Collider, where groundbreaking discoveries have helped reveal some of the most fundamental secrets of our physical universe."

In 1999, Kaplan earned his doctorate in physics from the University of Washington and went on to hold research positions at Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Chicago, and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Before pursuing physics as an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkley, Kaplan completed a year of film school at Chapman College. This experience shaped his filmmaking, he said. "The movie I made was for the curious non-physicist—for the other version of myself had I not gone into physics." Kaplan said. He described it as "a story about people working together to discover ultimate truth."

Growing up, Kaplan always enjoyed science documentaries but found they often fell short. "Science always felt like something that's distinct from the rest of humanity and you'd learn about it on these shows, but it felt like you were being lectured to and you didn't see the actual life behind it," he said. "People are vulnerable and make a lot of mistakes, struggle, and compete, so I thought someone should tell the actual story, the experience."

Kaplan emphasized the film's intimate nature. "I wanted to give the experiential version of the story where people would learn the science only because it was a key part of the narrative—it wasn't the goal to teach them physics. You can't learn particle physics in 90 minutes, but you can experience the process of it," Kaplan said.

Since critically acclaimed release of "Particle Fever," Kaplan has stayed engaged in both research and science outreach. In addition to teaching, Kaplan has been producing short instructional videos about physics for the online science magazine Quanta and developing new film and TV ideas based on the lives of scientists.

An invited public lecture will be scheduled later this year, where Kaplan will be presented with the award. More information about the award, which will be updated with the details of this year's award presentation, can be found at https://www.aip.org/aip/awards/gemant-award.

Provided by American Institute of Physics