On Friday, July 21, a new era of physics in the United States will officially begin.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) that will support the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) will be held one mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota at 3:20 p.m. CDT/2:20 p.m. MDT and will be streamed live. A groundbreaking celebration will simultaneously be held at Fermilab in Illinois. Tune in to hear from these distinguished guests and watch them break ground for the world’s flagship project to study neutrinos:
Executive Director Mike Headley, Sanford Underground Research Facility
South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard
Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios, Executive Office of the President
Associate Director of Science for High Energy Physics Jim Siegrist, Department of Energy
U.S. Senator John Thune, South Dakota
U.S. Senator Mike Rounds, South Dakota
U.S. Representative Kristi Noem, South Dakota
U.S. Representative Randy Hultgren, Illinois
Director for International Relations Charlotte Warakaulle, CERN, Switzerland
Professor Sergio Bertolucci, University of Bologna and National Institute for Nuclear Physics, Italy
Executive Director of Programmes Grahame Blair, Science and Technology Facilities Council, United Kingdom
Director Nigel Lockyer, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/shaking-the-dark-matter-paradigm
Thomas Hein is a returning student in the Fermilab TARGET program. This summer he’s helping current TARGET interns learn Python programming. Photo: Mario Lucero
How did you get involved with the TARGET program?
A little over a year ago, I attended a few of the Saturday Morning Physics lectures and heard about the TARGET program. I decided to apply and was accepted into the program.
What is your role in the Python programming course?
As a TARGET student last year, I worked with Ruth Pordes, my supervisor, along with Nate Knauf, another intern outside of the TARGET program, to create a Python course for other TARGET students. Nate Knauf and I created the teaching materials, and Ruth supervised the class. By the end of the program, every student had a solid understanding of the Python language.
This year, I was able to come back as an extended intern. I am now working with my new supervisor Marco Mambelli, the technical lead on the GlideinWMS project. The Python course is being given again this year, and Marco and I are leading it. It has been a lot of fun, and I look forward to each class.
Are you working on any other projects?
I am currently focused on the GlideinWMS project, updating the code base from an older version of Python to be compatible with Python version 3.6.
What are you planning on doing when you leave Fermilab?
I will be attending the University of Illinois at Chicago this fall, majoring in computer science. I hope to study machine learning and take some classes in electrical engineering as well.
What’s your favorite part of working here?
It’s a great atmosphere to work in, and the people here are amazing. This has been an incredible experience for me, and I’m glad to come into work every day.
On Wednesday, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg took to Facebook Live from a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota, future home of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment.
As of the date of this post, more than 2 million people have viewed Zuckerberg’s Facebook Live video, which discusses DUNE, neutrinos and the search for dark matter. Fermilab even gets a shout-out about 4 minutes in (3:55).
Watch Zuckerberg’s video for a glimpse of the DUNE host facility and to learn a little more about our research partners at Sanford Lab.
Ron Walker, left and Bill Fowler stand near the site of the groundbreaking for the liquid-helium plant. Photo: Fermilab
Way back when, I was in the Materials Supply Group, I was in charge of looking through lists of equipment that laboratories and government facilities had placed in excess — things they no longer needed — and that could be transferred to another laboratory.
I had heard through my boss Norm Hill and other higher-ups that they were looking for a liquid-helium plant. They needed it to cool the magnets in the Main Ring and to do their experiments for the future Energy Doubler. So I was looking and, lo and behold, I came across an air separation plant. It was thousands and thousands of dollars. We acquired the Worthington reciprocating compressors that were used in the plant.
We worked it out with Norm Hill and Jack Jaeger, the directorate approved it, and it was all free of charge. All we had to do was pay the shipping. It was a pretty huge acquisition. It was from a facility in California.
The compressors arrived in pieces on big flatbed trucks — huge trailer-type vehicles.
People were so happy to get it free of charge. I saved the lab mega bucks.
You can read about the liquid-helium plant in the Dec. 11, 1975, issue of FermiNews, page 1.