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| CERN’s Marco Villa, center, explains to EDIT students Peter-Bernd Otte, left, and Tom Barber, right, how to use a gas electron multiplier detector at CERN’s EDIT school last year. Photo by Kathryn Grim |
Called Excellence in Detectors and Instrumentation Technologies, this new series of international symposiums is exposing young researchers to hands-on particle detector experience.
From Feb. 13 through 24 at Fermilab, 64 EDIT attendees from around the world will work alongside detector professionals. The first morning starts off with a series of lectures. Among the speakers is the dean of American detector specialists, David Nygren of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Each of the following days begins with a brief lecture on particle detectors and experiments – all are open to the public.
The students, split into eight groups, focus on a different track each day. In one exercise, each student gets a time projection chamber to study, while another group compares real-time beam profiles in Fermilab’s Test Beam Facility to computer simulations. The two other tracks, meanwhile, focus on silicon tracking detectors and solid state photo detection.
A series of tours will give a closer look at the MINOS Underground and NOvA areas, the Collider Detector Halls and several other facilities.
The new EDIT school has proven to be just as popular as the previous symposium at CERN. Erik Ramberg, Fermilab physicist and chair of EDIT’s local organizing committee, said an overwhelming 205 applications were considered. For those unable to make this session, the next EDIT school will be held at KEK in Japan next year.
“This school will bring advanced detector design concepts to a new generation of particle physicists,” Ramberg said. “That kind of experience can enhance their whole career.”
—Brad Hooker