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From University of Maryland, Oct. 17, 2019: Fermilab scientist Charles Thangaraj received the 40 under 40 Chicago Scientists award at the 2nd Annual Halo Awards on Oct. 12 at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. The Halo Awards ceremony recognizes scientists for their dedication to translating research into real-world applications that meaningfully impact people’s lives.

From Brookhaven National Laboratory, Oct. 11, 2019: Dmitri Denisov, a leading physicist and spokesperson of the DZero experiment, has been named deputy associate lab director for high-energy physics at Brookhaven National Laboratory. In this role, Denisov is responsible for Brookhaven’s strategic planning in high-energy physics and oversees a wide range of particle physics projects at the lab.

In their ongoing search for the mysterious dark matter that makes up 85% of our universe, the particle physics community turns its sights to particles of low mass. The Department of Energy announced that it is providing funding for two Fermilab initiatives to develop experimental designs for experiments that will be highly sensitive to the smallest particles of dark matter. Following the development of the experimental designs, the next phase of funding will be subject to additional reviews and approval.

From CERN, Oct. 15, 2019: A new result by the CMS Collaboration narrows down the mass of the Higgs boson to a precision of 0.1%. After reporting the observation of the Higgs boson at the CERN LHC in 2012, scientists the ATLAS and CMS collaborations have been busy understanding exactly its place within the standard model of particle physics. Any straying from expectations could be an indication of new physics.

From Inside Science, Oct. 11, 2019: Fermilab Director Nigel Lockyer is quoted in this article about the discussion surrounding the world’s next big atom smasher. Europe and China both plan to build one, but scientists are debating if it’s worth it.

A strong regional tradition of high-energy physics and astrophysics—plus the aspirations of one young researcher—brought the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Gamma-ray Observatory to Mexico.

From UChicago News, Oct. 15, 2019: Astronomers at the University of Chicago, MIT and elsewhere have used a massive cluster of galaxies as an X-ray magnifying glass to peer back in time, to nearly 9.4 billion years ago. In the process, they spotted a tiny dwarf galaxy in its very first, high-energy stages of star formation. Fermilab and University of Chicago scientist Brad Benson is a co-author of the study.

From Black Hills Pioneer, Oct. 10, 2019: Representatives from the British Consulate, Fermilab and Sanford Underground Research Facility were on hand for a dinner in Rapid City, South Dakota, in honor of the Red Arrows and the ongoing scientific and technological relations between the UK and the U.S. In 2017, the UK committed $88 million to the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility and the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. Fermilab Director Nigel Lockyer notes that the first science and technology agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom was driven by neutrino physics.