"I spent a lot of time reading to learn about the experiment and the programs I had to use," said Maldonado, who is studying mathematical physics at the Universidad Autónoma de San Luís Potosi. MIPP's goal is to make precise measurements of particle production cross sections using several different types of targets and detectors. Maldonado's first major project was to help with the repair of a multi-wire proportional chamber, a device that allows scientists to determine the charge of a particle by looking at its path through an electromagnetic field. "Some wires in the chamber needed to be replaced because sparks had damaged them," Maldonado explained. "We also cleaned some burnt cathodes and fixed a wire that was out of place."

Maldonado also worked on a computer program that calculates MIPP's average data acquisition rate per hour, the hourly average of spills per minute, and the average number of events in each run. "We need to have these plots to keep an accurate status record of the experiment," he said.

While Maldonado is entering his third year of college, he will not be returning to his typical routine this semester. Instead, he is planning to study aboard at the Universitat de le Illes Balears in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. He hopes to continue his studies in graduate school and eventually work in theoretical physics. "Coming to Fermilab was one of my dreams, and I really hope I can come back one day," he said.
—Elizabeth Wade

A meeting between two physicists at a conference in 2001 has helped lead to a success in addressing the digital divide—the difference in computing and connectivity between the developed and the developing world.

"I was concerned about upgrading Brazil's computing capacity for high energy physics," said Alberto Santoro from Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ). "After reading a paper on grid computing, I approached one of the paper's authors, Harvey Newman from the California Institute of Technology, to talk about Brazil getting involved in grids."

The International Committee on Future Accelerators Standing Committee on Interregional Connectivity, which Newman chairs, had just decided that the digital divide would be a main focus of its activities. The committee started with Latin America, holding its 2002 workshop at UERJ. Representatives from Brazil's National Research and Education Network (RNP), network providers and the local community attended to discuss network requirements for scientific research.
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After years of painstaking effort, the last of the 4 barrels that make up the central part of the Semiconductor Tracker (SCT), the heart of the biggest physics collaboration in the world has today (August 24th) left Oxford for its new home at the European Particle Physics Laboratory, CERN, near Geneva.

At CERN, physicists from around the world are assembling the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which will send two counter-rotating beams of particles round an underground ring at 99.999999 per cent of the speed of light. When the beams are brought into collision, a shower of new particles will be produced reproducing conditions similar to those immediately after the Big Bang. These will be studied at four detectors around the ring. The largest of these detectors is called ATLAS and at its heart lies the SCT tracking the movements of the charged particles produced in the high-energy collision.

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