Fermilab features

Q&A: Becky Thompson

Meet the comic-creating, triathlete, Hufflepuff physicist who’s also the new head of Fermilab’s Office of Education and Public Outreach.

Future particle colliders will need strong magnets to steer high-energy particle beams as they travel close to the speed of light on their circular path. A group at Fermilab has achieved a record field strength of 14.1 teslas for a particle accelerator steering magnet, breaking the 11-year record.

The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany, has taken a significant step to participate in the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, hosted by Fermilab. Fermilab and the university have signed an agreement to jointly appoint an internationally renowned researcher who will strengthen the experimental particle physics research program at JGU Mainz and advance a German contribution to DUNE. This is the first Fermilab joint agreement with a university in Germany.

Engineers at Fermilab have shown that sometimes, to reshape the metal heart of a particle accelerator, what you need is a balloon. The new, patented technique is a novel solution to a problem that affects an essential component of accelerators: superconducting cavities.