Karen Uhlenbeck’s pioneering work marries math with physics. Her work in the field of mathematical physics has earned her numerous honors and awards, including the 1988 Noether Lecture award, the National Medal of Science in 2001, and the 2007 Steele Prize for a Seminal Contribution to Mathematical Research from the American Mathematical Society. A MacArthur fellow, she is also the first woman to win the Abel Prize in its 17-year history.
A new machine learning technology tested by Fermilab scientists and collaborators can spot specific particle signatures among an ocean of LHC data in the blink of an eye, much faster than standard methods. Sophisticated and swift, its performance gives a glimpse into the game-changing role machine learning will play in making future discoveries in particle physics as data sets get bigger and more complex.
Fermilab researchers have announced first results from IOTA, the lab’s newest particle accelerator. The first run, which included observations of single electrons circulating in the ring, illustrates the exciting potential of the versatile machine, both in advancing quantum science and improving accelerator beams.
From SDPB Radio, July 26, 2019: Fermilab Director Nigel Lockyer’s full interview for “Morning Fill-Up” is now available on the South Dakota Public Broadcasting site. In the 58-minute recording, Lockyer discusses neutrinos, the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility and Sanford Underground Research Facility and his own journey in science.
An Italian experiment has a 20-year signal of what could be dark matter—and scientists are embarking on their most promising efforts yet to confirm or refute its results. For more than two decades, DAMA has observed a regularly changing signal that its operators think comes from our planet’s movements through the “halo” of dark matter suffusing the Milky Way galaxy.
Three United States DOE national laboratories – SLAC, Fermilab and Jefferson Lab – have partnered to build an advanced particle accelerator that will power the LCLS-II X-ray laser. Thanks to technology developed for nuclear and high-energy physics, the new X-ray laser will produce a nearly continuous wave of electrons and allow scientists to peer more deeply than ever before into the building blocks of life and matter.
From Texas Tech Today, Aug. 5, 2019: Texas Tech physicists have been looking for dark matter at the CMS experiment at CERN and studying neutrinos.
If you’ve ever wondered what it was like to learn about the mind-bending concept of relativity when it first made a splash in public consciousness, come to Fermilab’s latest history exhibit. See works written by Einstein and read the public response to his groundbreaking theory.
At the event, Fermilab scientists discussed challenges related to diversity in STEM, promoted opportunities to visit and intern at the lab, and dazzled crowds with science, liquid-nitrogen demonstrations and even an original Black Panther-inspired costume.
From Science News, Aug. 8, 2019: It’s a news flashback. Science News excerpts a bit on the Fermilab Bubble Chamber from their August 16, 1969, issue. “Use by visitors is expected to be especially large at the National Accelerator Laboratory now under construction at Batavia, Ill…. NAL staff and consultants agree that the laboratory will need a large bubble chamber, and it now plans to build one in collaboration with Brookhaven National Laboratory.”