Spotlight on the University of Puerto Rico
The University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez (UPRM) QuarkNet Center is one of the most active, with large numbers of teachers from all over the island. Mentor Hector Mendez spends summers doing research at Fermilab and the group meets just about exclusively during the academic year. This did not prevent them from having a cosmic ray workshop with Mark Adams in November 2016. UPRM is active in cosmic ray studies, even though Internet is a limiting factor at many schools. Part of the emphasis on activity in the school year is that International Masterclasses are a major event at UPRM. This year, UPRM experimented with doing the ATLAS masterclass for the first time; they'd always done CMS before. Ken facilitated an ATLAS orientation in Mayaguez just about a month ago; last Saturday, they had their ATLAS masterclass with about 80 students! We should also note that UPRM physicists Hector Mendez and Sudhir Malik are masterclass moderators who have done a lot to help the program. Hurricane Maria hurt Puerto Rico and recovery continues; QuarkNet in Puerto Rico is evidence that physicists, teachers and students are undaunted.
News from QuarkNet Central
International Masterclasses 2018 are past the halfway mark. International Muon Week is over; let the analysis begin. Mentors, look for an RFP e-mail today and a call for Data Camp nominations next week.
Physics Experiment Roundup
Everyone knows the LHC: big, energetic, rates through the roof, and near some great places for fondue. Interactions reports on other accelerators making their mark. Before ALICE turned on, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) was taking data at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Now RHIC has turned 18 and is still going strong. On the other side of the world, in Tsukuba, Japan, SuperKEKB is upgraded and ready for e+e- collisions in the new Belle II detector. On the West Coast, symmetry reports that the SLAC accelerator continues development with its new niobium RF cavities. SLAC and the LHC come together in this symmetry article about a possible new result in b quark decays; more study needed. And can dark matter interact with luminous matter? Maybe, according to Physics Today.
Resources
It is the people that make the field. Physics Today has more on Stephen Hawking and a Q&A with astronomer Virginia Trimble. A Fermilab video on Kirsty Duffy introduces her life and her work in particle physics. And here is where she works!
Just for Fun
Strap on your Spanish for a masterclass video from Chile. Trouble telling W+ from W- in CMS? Keep messing up the right-hand rule? In xkcd, we see it could be worse. And because we can: Tacoma Narrows Bridge, narrated.
QuarkNet Staff:
Mark Adams: adams@fnal.gov
Ken Cecire: kcecire@nd.edu
Deborah Roudebush: droudebush@cox.net
Jeremy Smith: jsmith10@bcps.org
Shane Wood: swood5@nd.edu