John Paul Chou (right), physics professor at Rutgers University, answers questions during the LPC physics forum at Fermilab. The forum began in 2006. Photo: Amanda Solliday For attendees at Fermilab’s LHC Physics Center forum, PowerPoint slides are a thing of the past. The forum organizers made a switch from slides to chalkboard-style talks about six months ago. This is part of a larger effort by the LPC to shift the biweekly meetings from monologue to dialogue. “Without slides, the forum…
Fermilab’s Teacher Resource Center serves educators of all kinds: teachers, scientists, librarians and professors. Photo: Reidar Hahn Just a few steps away from Fermilab’s iconic Wilson Hall, the one-room Teacher Resource Center provides educational materials for about 300 teachers each year. “It may be small, but it’s mighty,” said Mike Knapp, eighth-grade science teacher at Marquardt Middle School in Glendale Heights, Ill. Knapp has used the TRC for decades. Located at the Lederman Science Center, the TRC houses instructional materials…
There’s a computing program that works under the radar for many particle physics experiments, one that makes life easier for researchers dealing with large amounts of data. First developed at Fermilab by Igor Sfiligoi, the Glidein Work Management System works much like an air traffic controller by organizing data that land at global computing centers. “Our goal is to make the process as simple as possible for scientists,” said Burt Holzman, head of CMS computing facilities at Fermilab and GlideinWMS…
Fermilab scientist Joe Lykken was one of six presenters at a symposium on dark-matter detection at the recent AAAS annual meeting.
Fermilab Office of Education Head Marge Bardeen, CERN Communication Head James Gillies and Science and Technology Facilities Council CEO John Womersley talk about leveraging news of the Higgs discovery to raise public interest in science.
Fermilab scientist Aaron Chou discusses experimental probes of quantum geometry at the AAAS conference. At the same session, Deputy Head of the Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics Dan Bauer discussed the detection of cosmic dark matter.
137 Films’ Clayton Brown (left) and Monica Long Ross (not pictured), along with the Office of Communication’s Kurt Riesselmann (right), talked about making science documentaries to a standing-room-only crowd at the AAAS conference.
Bob Cibic purchases lab materials in the Procurement Department. Photo: Reidar Hahn How long have you worked at Fermilab? I’ve been here for 21 years, and I’d have to say it’s the best employer I’ve ever worked for. I was assigned to work as the first project procurement liaison for NOvA nine years ago. Describe a typical workday. It varies from day to day. I buy the hardware — such as power tubes and amplifiers — for many of the…
Snow covers the Cross Gallery and the Booster ring. Photo: Amanda Solliday
Fermilab docent Toni Mueller shows students a model of a beamline. The Midwest Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics coordinators offered participants a tour of Fermilab or Argonne. Photo: Amanda Solliday Seventy female college students in hard hats descended into the MINOS cavern, walked through the Tevatron tunnel and explored the Linac beamline as part of the Midwest Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics Friday, Jan. 17. “The first time I toured Fermilab, it wasn’t what I was expecting at…