Helen Quinn

Biography

Helen Rhoda Quinn was born in Australia in 1943. She received her PhD from Stanford University. She worked at Harvard University, SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center). She was the first woman president of the American Physical Society (APS). She has received many awards for leadership and contributions to particle physics.

Key discoveries

• Peccei–Quinn symmetry (1977) – postulates the existence of a new symmetry
• the spontaneous breaking of which links strong CP conservation with the pseudoscalar axion field. Quinn also participated in establishing mass constraints on the axion (Quinn–Weinberg bounds). Contribution to the systematics of fermion masses and interaction hierarchies in the Standard Model.