Fermilab Today

Lindsay Olson began learning particle physics by immersion almost a year ago, in November 2014, when she became Fermilab's first artist in residence. She dove head-first into books and periodicals on particle physics; spent hundreds of hours at Fermilab and at CERN in Switzerland talking with operators, engineers and scientists; and even took a number of Fermilab safety training courses.

Now in the final stretch of her residency, Olson will show newly completed art work and works in progress and speak informally about her project at an open-studio event on Friday, Sept. 11, from 3-5 p.m. in the Fermilab Art Gallery.

"This experience has stretched my understanding of the universe," Olson said. "It's been the high point of my career to be artist in residence here."

Olson will show works inspired by the Standard Model, neutrinos, dark matter and accelerator operations. She is also creating a number of illuminated books expressing how high-energy physics relates not only to the discovery of particles but also to the origins of the universe.

Olson has already held several shows of her work on particle physics. She has also shared her work with local associations, student groups and clubs.

"I love the inspiring atmosphere at Fermilab," she said.

Come to Friday's event to find out what inspired her.

Photo of the Day

Chipmunk

This chipmunk lives near BEG. Photo: Barb Kristen, PPD

In the News

Particle collider spits out tiny drops of primordial goo

From Discovery News, Sept. 3, 2015

A US-based laboratory has produced tiny droplets of a state of matter that existed in the first few milliseconds after the Big Bang after slamming particles together at close to the speed of light.

The matter, known as a quark-gluon plasma (or QGP), is predicted to exist when temperatures and densities are so extreme that regular matter cannot exist. Instead, a "perfect liquid" exists for a short time before it cools and condenses into the regular stuff that forms the building blocks of matter.

Although physicists have announced the detection of this exotic state of matter before, new results from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, in Upton, New York, appear to show the tiniest droplets of quark-gluon plasma appear, in a specific pattern, after colliding helium-3 nuclei with gold ions.

From the Scientist Advisory Council

Send your nominations for the Scientist Advisory Council

Camille Ginsburg

Chris Quigg

Camille Ginsburg and Chris Quigg, co-chairs of the Scientist Advisory Council, wrote this column.

The Scientist Advisory Council (SAC), founded in June 2013, is a group of approximately 15 members of the Fermilab scientific staff, diverse in areas of expertise and experience. The SAC will finish up its current term on Sept. 30. We are currently soliciting nominations for the 2015-17 term.

A goal of the SAC is to share with the director new developments that might have implications for the future scientific program. SAC members engage in open discussion on topics of interest for both short- and long-term scientific plans for the laboratory's research program. In some cases this means bringing to Fermilab recent results from conferences or important small advances that may fly under the radar. Members have been involved in the organization of scientist retreats related to lab scientific prioritization and the P5 roll-out. Meeting discussions have focused on recent results from non-Fermilab experiments with bearing on Fermilab science, as well as whether new science topics may align well with Fermilab priorities. SAC members have invited presentations on recent scientific results and project or experiment status from scientists across the lab. They also nominate Fermilab or Fermilab-affiliated scientists for lab and professional organization committees.

The SAC discusses issues related to careers and professional development of the Fermilab scientific staff. Members have been involved in the working groups for new scientist policies associated with searches and hiring, promotions and terminations. They have fielded questions and responded to concerns and criticisms associated with the new policies and brought those as needed to the Directorate. We have discussed how these policies are being implemented and followed up. They also bring up topics for future committees, for example, how to implement an effective labwide mentoring for junior lab scientists.

SAC is concerned about practical organizational and funding issues, such as interdivisional cooperation and how to fund science through private donations.

SAC members are expected to communicate openly to the director topics of interest or concern that he may not hear directly. Since members of the Directorate and division heads already have a clear communication path with the director, they are not eligible to be members.

Former and current members are:

2013-2014: Lothar Bauerdick, Kevin Burkett, Ioanis Kourbanis, Joe Lykken, Gina Rameika (co-chair), Vadim Rusu, Panagiotis Spentzouris and Bob Tschirhart (co-chair).

2013-2015: Aaron Chou, Scott Dodelson, Camille Ginsburg (co-chair), Valeri Lebedev, Vivian O'Dell, Jen Raaf, Ruth van de Water and Bob Zwaska.

2014-2016: Giorgio Ambrosio, Dmitri Denisov, Oliver Gutsche, Jim Hirschauer, Brenna Flaugher, Rob Plunkett, Chris Quigg (co-chair) and Sam Zeller

If you know of scientists who could make valuable contributions to our group by becoming a member, please email your nominations to us by Sept. 15: quigg@fnal.gov or ginsburg@fnal.gov.