Photographers on a previous Physics Photowalk at Fermilab. Photo: Reidar Hahn
Local event is part of the Global Physics Photowalk featuring 18 labs around the world.
Major science laboratories from around the world, including the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, today announced a Global Physics Photowalk competition, open to amateur and professional photographers. Physics facilities in Australia, Europe and North America will open their doors for a rare opportunity to see behind the scenes of some of the world’s most exciting and groundbreaking science.
The Global Physics Photowalk will involve local and national competitions, with the winning national photos submitted to a global judging panel. Fermilab’s Photowalk will be held on Saturday, July 28, from 8 a.m. to noon. Registration will open on June 4, and information is available on Fermilab’s website. The top photos from Fermilab’s event, as chosen by a jury, will be submitted to the global competition.
Organized by the Interactions collaboration and supported by the UK-based Royal Photographic Society, the global short list will be announced in August, followed by a public vote.
Confirmed locations include CERN – the home of the Large Hadron Collider – as well as underground laboratories in Australia, the UK and the United States, and labs and facilities in Canada, Italy, the UK, the United States — for the first time — China.
Please stay tuned to the Fermilab website for updates about the July 28 event and for registration information. Follow #PhysPics18 on Twitter and Facebook for more info as well.
The international competition will include the following laboratories:
- Boulby Underground Laboratory (UK, funded by STFC)
- Brookhaven National Laboratory (U.S., funded by U.S. DOE)
- CERN (France/Switzerland)
- Chilbolton Observatory (UK, funded by STFC)
- Daresbury Laboratory (UK, funded by STFC)
- Fermilab (U.S., funded by U.S. DOE)
- Frascati National Laboratories (Italy, funded by INFN)
- Gran Sasso National Laboratory (Italy, funded by INFN)
- Institute of High Energy Physics (China)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (U.S., funded by U.S. DOE)
- Legnaro National Laboratories (Italy, funded by INFN)
- Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (UK, funded by STFC)
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (U.S., funded by U.S. DOE)
- Southern National Laboratories (Italy, funded by INFN)
- Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (Australia, funded by CoEPP)
- Sanford Underground Research Facility (U.S.)
- TRIUMF (Canada)
- UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK, funded by STFC)
See the winning photos from the previous Fermilab Photowalk. See a selection of winning images from the previous Global Physics Photowalk.
Fermilab is America’s premier national laboratory for particle physics and accelerator research. A U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory, Fermilab is located near Chicago, Illinois, and operated under contract by the Fermi Research Alliance LLC, a joint partnership between the University of Chicago and the Universities Research Association Inc. Visit Fermilab’s website at www.fnal.gov and follow us on Twitter at @Fermilab.
DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
The Interactions collaboration (Interactions.org) seeks to support the international science of particle physics and to set visible footprints for peaceful collaboration across all borders. Members of the Interactions collaboration represent the world’s particle physics laboratories and institutions in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia, with funding provided by science funding agencies from many nations.
The Royal Photographic Society is a registered charity, supported by its 11,600 members. Founded in 1853 to promote the art and science of photography, its objectives today are to educate members of the public, promote the highest standards and to encourage the public appreciation of photography. It does this through public events and activities, exhibitions and its educational activities. See www.rps.org.
The next two years are pivotal for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, the international particle physics experiment hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.
In a vote earlier this month, the DUNE collaboration elected Stefan Soldner-Rembold, professor of particle physics at the University of Manchester, as its new co-spokesperson to help guide the experiment through these next two years. Soldner-Rembold has experience leading a large collaboration – he was co-spokesperson of the 500-member DZero experiment at Fermilab from 2009 to 2011 – and has been working in neutrino physics for more than a decade.
Soldner-Rembold has served in several leadership positions within the DUNE collaboration, including chair of the Speakers Committee, and was elected as a member of the DUNE Executive Committee in 2016.
Two prototype detectors for DUNE are scheduled to be completed at CERN in Switzerland later this year, and technical design on the experiment’s full-size detector will be worked out over the next 18 months. The DUNE collaboration continues to grow – it currently includes more than 1,000 members from 31 countries – and continues to attract young minds from around the world, eager to contribute to this global-scale neutrino experiment.
“This is a formative period for DUNE,” Soldner-Rembold said. “What we decide now will shape the detectors and the way the collaboration works for the next 10 to 20 years. I’m thrilled to be stepping in as co-spokesperson during such an exciting time.”
It’s also a time in which the UK’s contributions to DUNE are ramping up. The UK has committed $88 million to the construction of the experiment (including the facility that will house it and the accelerator upgrades that will power it), and Soldner-Rembold is currently leading the UK-U.S. consortium designing and constructing vital components of the DUNE detector. Prototypes of these components are currently being installed in the ProtoDUNE detectors under construction at CERN, another major partner in DUNE.
“To build the world’s best neutrino detector, we need to attract further international partners,” Soldner-Rembold said. “The election of an international co-spokesperson sends a signal to other countries that this is an interesting and exciting project that they should join and commit to.”
Over the next few years, Soldner-Rembold said, it will be important to continue to encourage young scientists to participate in DUNE.
“In order to create a vibrant and strong collaboration, we need to encourage the next generation of young physicists to be engaged with the project,” he said.
Soldner-Rembold will take over the position from Mark Thomson of the University of Cambridge and will join Edward Blucher of the University of Chicago as co-spokesperson.
“I look forward to working closely with Stefan,” Blucher said. “His wealth of experience will prove invaluable as the DUNE collaboration navigates the exciting years ahead.”
The first particle accelerator to be built in the United States with significant contributions from international partners is taking shape at the Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory—and it has a new leader at the helm.
On March 1, Lia Merminga, an internationally renowned accelerator physicist with leadership experience at three science laboratories, took on the role of project director for the Proton Improvement Plan II.
PIP-II is Fermilab’s project to provide powerful, high-intensity proton beams to its experiments, including the flagship Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility and Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. LBNF/DUNE brings together more than 1,000 scientists from 31 countries in the quest to unlock the mysteries of neutrinos, answering questions about why matter exists, how nature’s four forces could unify and how black holes are formed. Once complete, DUNE will be the biggest international science project ever hosted in the United States, and PIP-II will provide it with the most powerful high-energy neutrino beam in the world.
Merminga succeeds Fermilab physicist Stephen Holmes, who will retire later this year.
“I’m excited to join Fermilab and to work with the PIP-II team,” Merminga said. “Steve has done an outstanding job laying the foundation for PIP-II over the last few years, and Fermilab has an excellent reputation in developing and implementing advances in accelerator technology. I look forward to continuing Steve’s good work in upgrading our accelerator complex for the next generation of experiments.”
Merminga has more than 25 years of experience in accelerator construction and superconducting radio-frequency, or SRF, accelerator technology, the technology of choice for many current and future particle accelerators. The heart of PIP-II will be a new 800 million-electronvolt superconducting linear accelerator, which capitalizes on Fermilab’s expertise in SRF technology. It will replace the laboratory’s current linear accelerator, ramping up beam energies to double that of its predecessor.
The opportunity to partner in this cutting-edge accelerator project has attracted the interest of countries around the world, including France, India, Italy and the UK.
“Developing these technological innovations along with our partner institutions is key to PIP-II’s success,” Merminga said.
The PIP-II group works closely with the team building Fermilab’s LBNF, which provides the infrastructure to support DUNE.
“Lia’s work with accelerator construction and SRF is highly respected, and she brings a wealth of experience to Fermilab,” said Fermilab Director Nigel Lockyer. “We are pleased that she is joining us to lead the PIP-II project, which will allow powerful, high-intensity proton beams for Fermilab’s accelerator-based neutrino experiments.”
Merminga was most recently associate laboratory director for accelerators at DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and a professor at Stanford University. Previous positions include serving as director of the Center for Advanced Studies of Accelerators at DOE’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Virginia and head of the Accelerator Division at Canada’s TRIUMF laboratory.
She has served as the chair of the Fermilab Accelerator Advisory Committee. She also served on the influential P5 Panel, which created the U.S. roadmap for particle physics, as well as on other numerous international advisory committees. Merminga has been a chair of the American Physical Society Division of Physics of Beams and is a fellow of the American Physical Society.
On March 8, Fermilab hosted Department of Energy Undersecretary for Energy Mark Menezes, the department’s principal advisor on energy policy and emerging energy technologies. He is also responsible for the coordinated management of DOE energy programs. Menezes previously served as an executive with Berkshire Hathaway Energy, a partner at Hunton & Williams LLP, and Chief Counsel on Energy and Environment for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce.
During his visit, Menezes met with the Fermilab management team, members of the DOE Fermi Site Office, and about 20 scientists, among them seven recipients of DOE Early Career Research Awards. Discussion delved into Fermilab’s mission and projects, including international science endeavors such as the Fermilab-hosted LBNF/DUNE project and CERN-hosted Large Hadron Collider, the technology that powers energetic particle beams, and partnerships with industry and other agencies.
