Leah Hesla

Leah Hesla is a science writer at Argonne National Laboratory and former senior writer in the Fermilab Office of Communication.

Fermilab’s beginnings can be traced to a 1963 report by a panel of U.S. scientists led by Norman Ramsey. In the 50 years since, Fermilab has grown to a laboratory of 1,800 employees, and scientists from 44 countries come to Fermilab to participate in its forefront particle physics programs.

Many visitors to Fermilab reasonably conclude from its name that Enrico Fermi worked at the laboratory, but he never did. In fact, he died in 1954, years before scientists even officially recommended the construction of a U.S. accelerator laboratory.

The Fermilab bison herd is now in pictures! Watch a 2-minute video, look at a map of the herd’s heritage, and read a playful letter of introduction from the lab’s first herd.

More than 1,350 physicists from around the world will converge in Chicago for the biennial ICHEP conference in August to share new research results, announce new projects, and talk about the most intriguing mysteries of the universe.