From UC Riverside, Dec. 4, 2019: The University of California, Riverside is participating in the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, which brings together more than 1,000 scientists from around the world to learn more about ghostly particles called neutrinos.

Grassellino will help lead the lab’s exciting portfolio for advancing the key technologies in high-energy physics and help oversee the realization of important accelerator projects.

From Rapid City Journal, Nov. 28, 2019: The Ross and Yates Shafts were built in the 1930s and served as powerhouses for Homestake Mining Company for years. When asked what is most remarkable about these shafts, the experts unanimously agree — the engineering and craftsmanship that allow these shafts to be used to this day by Sanford Underground Research Facility.

From CERN, Dec. 3, 2019: Large-scale scientific facilities, such as those for conducting particle physics research, are financed by society. A team of economists recently performed a cost-benefit analysis of upgrading the Large Hadron Collider. They concluded that the socioeconomic and cultural benefits gained from the project — not including potential scientific discoveries — exceed the total pecuniary investment.

Fermilab News looks back at 10 ways Fermilab researchers advanced science and technology in 2019, from the physics of particles to the motion of the cosmos. This year brought us groundbreakings, breakthroughs, a world record and awards. Look back at 2019 in this year-end roundup.

DOE has awarded a $1.9 million grant to Northern Illinois University and the Illinois Institute of Technology for the training of next-generation workers in accelerator science and technology. The program will cover student tuition costs for two years and fund paid research assistantships at Fermilab and Argonne. Physics professors Michael Syphers and Philippe Piot, both experts in particle accelerator research and technology, are leading the effort at NIU.

From DOE, Dec. 2, 2019: in a bipartisan vote of 70-15, the United States Senate confirmed Dan Brouillette to be the 15th U.S. secretary of energy. An official swearing in will take place at a later date. Prior to confirmation, Acting Secretary Brouillette served as the deputy secretary of energy under Secretary Rick Perry.

Growing up, scientist Giordon Stark loved his math and physics classes — worlds of equations and problems he could draw out to consider and solve. These came so easily to him. It made sense; growing up, he had become an expert in interpreting the visual. He started practicing so early in life that it wasn’t until he was 3 years old that his parents realized he was deaf. Now he works to ensure the field of physics research is accessible to all.

Mingzhi Shen’s career started in finance. Then he discovered that he enjoyed working with numbers in a different way, and he joined Fermilab as a network analyst.

It started with a cough that wouldn’t go away. After years of medical treatment and a successful heart transplant, physicist Avi Yagil partnered with the doctors who gave him a new heart to bring techniques from particle physics into the evaluation of heart-failure patients.