Rick Van Kooten, a professor of elementary particle physics, will join WonderLab Museum of Science, Health, and Technology’s board of directors next week.

Van Kooten will start as a member of WonderLab Board of Directors at their monthly meeting on Monday October 16th.

An accomplished physicist, Van Kooten graduated from University of Toronto in 1984 with a Bachelor of Applied Science. He went on to get his PhD. from Stanford University in 1990. After getting his PhD. Van Kooten worked as a CERN Associate Scientist and a DESY Research

Scientist. Van Kooten has been with Indiana University since 1993 and currently serves as the Vice Provost for Research and Professor of Elementary Particle Physics (Experimental).

Van Koon’s primary research interest involves particles containing b quarks and searches for new particles not described by the current Standard Model and he has contributed to over a dozen academic publications.