Celebrating the life and work of Mahir Hussein through cutting-edge research

A new collection of papers focusing on the dynamics of nuclei pays fitting tribute to Iraqi/Brazilian physicist Mahir Saleh Hussein.

New York | Heidelberg, 29 July 2021

On 16th May 2019 Iraqi/Brazilian physicist Mahir Saleh Hussein passed away leaving behind a distinguished career of achievements in a broad range of physics disciplines. There is, perhaps, no better way of paying tribute to this influential figure in physics than presenting a collection of cutting-edge, peer-reviewed papers. A special edition of EPJ A, edited by Valdir Guimarães, Universidade de São Paulo Instituto de Física, Brazil, Carlos Bertulani, Department of Physics of the Texas A&M University-Commerce, USA, and Nicolas Alamanos, Deputy Director of the Institute of Research into the Fundamental Laws of the Universe (IRFU), France, brings together a collection of papers focusing on nuclei clustering and dynamics as a fitting tribute to Hussein.

Up until his last few months of life, Hussein, who earned his PhD in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1971, was still assisting colleagues by providing theoretical analysis of results obtained with Radioactive Ion Beams in Brazil (RIBRAS) based at the Instituto de Física of USP. The physicist had played a vital role in obtaining the first grant for a superconducting solenoid system to produce radioactive ion beams at the university which went on to form the basis of the RIBRAS project.

Through his association with the Iraqi Society for Higher Education Abroad, Hussein proudly assisted Iraqi scientists to take part in international exchange programmes.

Given the inspirational and guiding role that Hussein played for collaborators and colleagues, it is only fitting that many of them were asked to contribute papers regarding nuclei clustering and dynamics for this special edition. Just as it is difficult to concisely and completely describe the awards and accolades gathered by Hussein during his career, it’s impossible for one special edition to cover the wide range of disciplines in which nuclei clustering and dynamics play a key role.

Yet, the authors and reviewers involved in the production of this tribute still manage to touch upon the role that clustering and dynamics play in aspects of science as diverse as the chemical evolution of the Universe to the role such phenomena play in nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics. As such, the collection proves that Mahir Saleh Hussein continues to motivate the production of cutting-edge science.

All articles of the Topical Issue on Cluster Structure and Dynamics of Nuclei - A Tribute to Mahir Hussein, edited by N. Alamanos, C. Bertulani, V. Guimaraes (2021) are available here and are freely accessible until 30 August 2021. For further information, please read the Editorial.

Reference: Alamanos, N., Bertulani, C. & Guimarães, V. Topical issue on cluster structure and dynamics of nuclei: a tribute to Mahir Hussein. Eur. Phys. J. A 57, 196 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-021-00511-x