Summer school will nurture
new neutrino scientists

Neutrino Physics Summer School poster

As neutrino research at Fermilab progresses in the coming decades, attracting more physicists dedicated to the field is key.

This summer, from July 2-13, Fermilab and KEK will sponsor the Neutrino Physics Summer School, here at Fermilab. So far more than 50 international students have registered.

"We hope this meeting builds strong ties that will last throughout careers. Sometimes the people you meet at a summer school become friends and colleagues for life," said event co-organizer Gina Rameika of Fermilab's Neutrino Department.

The Neutrino Physics Summer School is aimed at senior graduate students and recent PhDs who study particle physics. Ten days of lectures and discussions are planned, lasting from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day.

"After the lectures, the discussion sessions will have other physicists come in and explain the material further," Rameika said. "Some tough topics will be taught. We don't want people getting lost in the material early on, so we will guide them through it."

Organizers will keep the number of students small to encourage more personal interactions. Class topics range from the Standard Model to neutrino oscillations and decay, from both theoretical and experimental approaches.

Tuition and room and board will cost about $800, Rameika said, adding that it is hoped that a student's institution will cover the costs, however a small amount of scholarship funds will be available. Registration ends May 25, and about 20 seats remain.

-- Kate Raiford

Bruce Winstein returns as Panofsky Prize winner

Bruce Winstein

Bruce Winstein, 2007 Panofsky Prize winner and Samuel Allison Distinguished Service Professor in Physics at the University of Chicago, is anticipating a reunion in addition to his talk on Wednesday, June 6 at the Users' Annual Meeting.

"It will be a way to reach old colleagues I've lost touch with after I stopped doing so much experimental work at Fermilab," said Winstein, whose close Fermilab connection spanned more than 25 years from 1973 to 1999. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Winstein had completed his undergraduate degree at UCLA and his PhD at Caltech.

Winstein's Panofsky Prize cites him for "leadership in the series of experiments that resulted in a multitude of precision measurements of properties of neutral K mesons, most notably the discovery of direct CP violation." He shared the Panofsky Prize with CERN's Heinrich Wahl and INFN's Italo Mannelli, who had worked on similar experiments. The researchers showed that weak forces directly violate CP symmetry. Winstein led the KTeV collaboration at Fermilab, which in 1999 announced the observation of direct CP (charge-parity) violation, critical in understanding the predominance of matter over antimatter in the formation of the universe.

Winstein then took a sabbatical at Princeton, where he evolved into a cosmologist. Returning to the University of Chicago, he initiated the National Science Foundation Center for Cosmological Physics. There, Winstein's current work on the cosmic microwave background radiation investigates the physical conditions in the early universe. He still thinks of himself as a particle physicist because: "particle physics and cosmology are overlapping more and more."

"My only regret is that he's no longer closely involved in the accelerator program at Fermilab," said Bob Tschirhart, Fermilab's ILC physics coordinator and associate head of the computer division. He worked with Winstein for more than 10 years. "He has high intellectual standards and is a continual source of new ideas. It's a powerful combination."

The Users' Meeting runs June 6-7. Users are encouraged to register. The complete program for the Users' Meeting is available here.

-- Kate Raiford

From ScientificAmerican.com
May 9, 2007:

New studies of two exoplanets find that one keeps its hot side excruciatingly hot and the other may be stirred by 5,000 mph winds.

New temperature measurements are revealing extreme behavior in two planets outside our solar system, called exoplanets. One study indicates that HD 149026 b-a relatively small but extremely dense planet orbiting a distant star-has an atmospheric temperature of 2,300 kelvins (about 3,700 degrees Fahrenheit), or twice that of the hottest previously studied planet.

Astronomers have also mapped the surface temperature of one of those next-to-hottest planets, the larger and less dense HD 189733 b. They conclude that winds are evening out its day and night temperatures by stirring together hot and cold gas.

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