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Tag: Physics
Swapan Chattopadhyay
Renowned physicist Swapan Chattopadhyay, currently director of the Cockcroft Institute in England, has accepted a joint appointment to Northern Illinois University and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The appointment is effective Sept. 1. Chattopadhyay has helped break new ground in the fields of accelerator and beam physics, having made significant contributions to the development of accelerators...
David Hedin and Laura Vazquez
One is a documentary filmmaker whose works have screened internationally, the other a physicist who has made his mark on some of the world’s most ambitious experiments. Their disciplines couldn’t seem more different. But what Laura Vazquez and David Hedin share is an uncommon drive, along with a passion for immersing students in their work...
Seventeen high school students from across the region visited NIU Friday to learn about the mysteries of particle physics and what goes on in some of the world’s leading scientific laboratories. NIU Physics professors Dhiman Chakraborty and Michael Eads, along with science teacher Elisa Gatz of Sterling High School, led a daylong lesson on Wednesday as part of...
Photo of a math equation on chalkboard
NIU this semester is launching a new Center for Secondary Science and Mathematics Education, aimed at strengthening the university’s support of science and mathematics education throughout the region. The Illinois Board of Higher Education recently approved center status for a duration of five years, after which it could become permanent. The center will be housed...
Northern Illinois University student Francois Lemery (right) talks with NIU President Douglas Baker (left) and Congressman Randy Hultgren. Photo: Reidar Hahn
Northern Illinois University and Fermilab have enjoyed a strong relationship in accelerator science for a long time. Fermilab operates state-of-the-art accelerator facilities that provide valuable hands-on experience and research opportunities for students from NIU. The laboratory also has many world-expert accelerator scientists, engineers and technicians who share their savoir-faire on a daily basis and help educate...
American Association for the Advancement of Science logo
Warning: Brainiac alert! The annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), among the largest yearly gatherings of scientists in the world, will be held this week in Chicago, and NIU expects to be well-represented. NIU students, faculty and outreach staff will be attending various events at the meeting, held Thursday,...
STEM Cafe logo: Feed your mind!
Northern Illinois University physics professor Dhiman Chakraborty is preparing to reprise his popular talk on the mysterious Higgs boson for the DeKalb community. For decades, the Higgs boson was the holy grail of particle physics. Its detection confirms the existence of the Higgs field, which permeates the universe and gives particles mass. Without the Higgs...
Famously dubbed the “God particle,” the Higgs boson took thousands of scientists nearly five decades to discover, at a cost that one journalist estimated at $13.25 billion. Over the past 18 months, there has been plenty of hype about “the Higgs,” beginning with the boson’s discovery in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN...
David Hedin
Two thousand years ago, philosophers of nature believed the universe was made from symmetrical forms such as circles. Physicists now know that a perfectly symmetric universe is a lifeless void – that it’s the asymmetries that give rise to forms from stars to life itself and offer clues to one of time’s most elusive mysteries....
Why Particle Physics Matter: Vote Now!
NIU Presidential Research Professor Dhiman Chakraborty is one of more than two dozen physicists featured in a video contest sponsored by symmetry. Symmetry is a a magazine about particle physics for the general public published by Fermilab and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Editors asked 29 scientists to explain why particle physics matters – in about a...
NIU’s Department of Physics is preparing to host the final workshop for Fermilab’s world famous DZero experiment. About 70 attendees are expected for the collaboration’s 30th annual workshop, which will be held from Friday, June 7, through Tuesday, June 11. Over the years, the collaboration has involved 82 institutions from 18 countries and hundreds of...
Scientists from Northern Illinois University and 25 other institutions worldwide are planning an experiment that could open the doors to new realms of particle physics – and new opportunities for NIU students to participate in leading-edge research. But first the core of the experiment – a complex electromagnet that spans 50 feet in diameter –must...
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