Professor Hen\u2019s research focuses on studies of QCD effects in the nuclear medium, and the interplay between partonic and nucleonic degrees of freedom in nuclei. Utilizing high-energy scattering of electron, neutrino, photon, proton and ion off atomic nuclei Hen studies nuclear Short-Range Correlations (SRCs): Temporal fluctuations of high-density, high-momentum, nucleon clusters in nuclei. Due to their overlapping quark distributions and strong interaction, SRC pairs serve as a bridge between low-energy nuclear structure, high-density nuclear matter, and high-energy quark distributions (the EMC effect); with important consequences for strong-interaction physics, hadronic structure and astrophysics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hen and collaborators conducted experiments at the US based Thomas-Jefferson and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratories, as well as other accelerators around the world, where they study the structure and characteristics of SRC pairs and examined their effect on various topics in nuclear, particle, atomic and astrophysics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking ahead, Hen is focusing on the new frontier of QCD research at the Electron-Ion Collider facility currently under construction by the Brookhaven and Thomas-Jefferson National Labs. As part of this effort Hen co-led the ECCE consortium, that produced the reference design for the EIC’s main detector, and later co-founded the ePIC collaboration, as a member of its formation steering committee. Hen currently serves on the chair-line of the EIC Users Group and continues collaborating with ePIC to construct the EIC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or Hen grew up in Moshav Even-Sapir, in the countryside of Jerusalem, Israel. He received his undergraduate degree in physics and computer engineering from the Hebrew University and earned his PhD in experimental physics at Tel-Aviv University. Hen was an MIT Pappalardo Fellow in Physics from 2015 to 2017, before joining the MIT physics faculty in July 2017. Hen was named the Class of 1956 Career Development Assistant Professor of Physics in 2021, and promoted to Tenured Associate Professor in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","faculty_labs_and_centers":[48],"faculty_divisions":[37],"cpt_people":[],"faculty_titles":[40],"class_list":["post-1558","faculty","type-faculty","status-publish","hentry","faculty_labs_and_centers-lns","faculty_divisions-experimental-nuclear-particle-physics","faculty_titles-associate-professor"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n