Howard A. Rubin

Howard A. Rubin, a teacher and experimental elementary particle physics researcher, died 20 October 2016 in Chicago of coronary heart disease. He was 76.

Rubin’s undergraduate science education was at MIT, where he received his BS degree in 1961. He earned his PhD in 1966 from the University of Maryland for studies in elementary particle physics in the theory/experimental research group led by George Snow, a prominent physicist. Rubin’s thesis work there was directed by Ray Burnstein.

Rubin began his academic career at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in 1966 as an assistant professor of physics, where he joined Burnstein, who headed a newly established research group in high-energy physics. Rubin was an active participant in particle physics research, teaching and departmental affairs for almost five decades at IIT. His research activities were continuously supported by the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.

Rubin’s first experimental work was analyzing data from bubble chamber experiments performed at CERN, from which many predicted standard model particles were identified. He was involved in data analysis from bubble chamber experiments at Argonne National Laboratory and later used the 15 ft bubble chamber at the then newly established Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). One major experiment was Fermilab E545, which performed the first precision studies of neutrino–neutron interactions.

Over the years Rubin made numerous noteworthy contributions in the important area of data analysis. His software development and debugging skills, as well as his facility at porting code to different computers and operating systems, became legendary. Those talents eased his transition to the analysis of new electronic-detector experiments, with their massive data samples, and fueled his lifelong interest in advanced computing technology.

Highlights of the Fermilab electronic-detector experiments on which he collaborated include E791, a high-statistics study of charm and beauty hadroproduction performed during the 1980s at the Tagged Photon Laboratory, which recorded the world’s then-largest data sample of 100 000 reconstructed charm decays. Computing for that experiment pioneered the use of “Linux farms,” built from dozens to hundreds of commercial PCs. Another experiment, E871, sought in the 1990s to study CP violation, testing matter–antimatter symmetry via precision studies of strange baryons (hyperons). That experiment also recorded the world’s then-largest data sample, 120 terabytes on 29 301 tape cassettes, yielding a reconstructed hyperon sample of 2.5 billion events. In the 2000s, there was MINOS, a neutrino oscillation experiment, in which a neutrino beam was sent from Fermilab deep under Wisconsin to a detector in Minnesota to measure changes during flight in the properties of the neutrinos. Rubin developed and maintained the scripts to submit, organize, and monitor the large amount of data analyzed with the updated Fermilab computer farms.

Rubin taught numerous courses in his years at IIT, including general physics, classical mechanics, modern physics, and instrumentation laboratory. He took his teaching responsibilities seriously and maintained the rigorous standards expected by a technical university. He was always willing to listen to students and help them one-on-one.

In addition to his research and teaching contributions, Rubin served the department of physics as associate chair both in the 1980s and the 2000s, which involved scheduling physics courses and assigning them to faculty and teaching assistants, as well as advising students and faculty on coursework-related matters. This job is essential to a smoothly functioning department, and the faculty always appreciated his highly organized and efficient approach. He always had time to politely listen to his colleague’s concerns, initiate changes when appropriate, and then proudly tell them about his daughters and grandchildren.

Rubin was born on 4 January 1940 in Baltimore and attended high school there. He retired from IIT in 2010 as an emeritus professor but continued for years to participate in MINOS and other experiments.

Rubin is survived by his wife, Phyllis; daughters, Helen and Cindy; brother, Shmuel; and his grandchildren: Liana Bare, Noam Avner, and Elliot and Mara Frerichs.