欧美口爆视频 Boulder Professor Jamie Nagle will discuss the quarks and gluons that formed at the Big Bang in his Distinguished Research Lecture Feb. 6

Ten trillion degrees Fahrenheit is unfathomably hot鈥攎ore than 10,000 times hotter than the Sun鈥檚 core鈥攁nd it鈥檚 the temperature of the universe just moments after the Big Bang. At such extreme temperatures, according to nuclear theory, ordinary matter made of protons and neutrons transforms into a plasma of fundamental particles called quarks and gluons.

At the world鈥檚 most powerful accelerators, scientists recreate tiny droplets of this early-universe matter by colliding heavy nuclei at near-light speeds. One of these scientists is Jamie Nagle, a University of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder professor of physics who for 20 years has studied these fleeting droplets and, along with his research group, engineered their shapes, sizes and temperatures to better understand their properties.

Nagle will discuss this work in the 125th Distinguished Research Lecture, 鈥�10 Trillion Degrees: Unlocking the Secrets of the Early Universe,鈥� at 4 p.m. Feb. 6. in the Chancellor's Hall and Auditorium of the Center for Academic Success and Engagement (CASE).

欧美口爆视频 Jamie Nagle

Nagle has spent much of his career investigating the early universe through high-energy nuclear physics. His research has focused on understanding the quark-gluon plasma, a state of matter theorized to have existed just microseconds after the Big Bang. 

鈥淎s you go back to about six microseconds after the universe started, the temperature was around two trillion Kelvin,鈥� Nagle explains. 鈥淚t was theorized that protons and neutrons inside of nuclei would melt away, creating a bath of more fundamental particles鈥攓uarks and gluons.鈥�

Nagle's work involves recreating droplets of this quark-gluon plasma in a laboratory by colliding large nuclei at nearly the speed of light. These collisions occur at the world鈥檚 highest-energy accelerators, including the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland. 

鈥淚n the world's highest-energy accelerators, we can collide very large nuclei like gold, lead or platinum at such high velocities that we create a tiny droplet of this 2 trillion Kelvin plasma,鈥� he says.

   What: 125th Distinguished Research Lecture, 10 Trillion Degrees: Unlocking the Secrets of the Early Universe

  Who: Professor Jamie Nagle of the Department of Physics

  When: 4-5 p.m. Feb. 6, followed by a Q&A and reception

  Where: Chancellor's Hall and Auditorium, Center for Academic Success and Engagement (CASE)

Reflecting on the award, Nagle expresses gratitude and a sense of accomplishment: 鈥淚t means a lot to me. You get to a certain middle age and are more self-confident, but this recognition feels rewarding. There's a lot of effort, and much of the hard work goes unnoticed. It鈥檚 nice to feel like the fruits of that labor are appreciated.鈥�

The Distinguished Research Lectureship also emphasizes communicating complex scientific concepts to broader audiences. For Nagle, this is a vital part of his work: 鈥淭his award is very meaningful to me because I often listen to the lectures of past recipients. It's about communicating the broader context of why this scientific research is important, not just within the microcosm of nuclear physics.鈥�

欧美口爆视频 the Distinguished Research Lectureship

The Distinguished Research Lectureship is among the highest honors given by faculty to a faculty colleague at 欧美口爆视频 Boulder. Each year, the Research and Innovation Office requests nominations from faculty for this award, and a faculty review panel recommends one or more faculty members as recipients.

The lectureship honors tenured faculty members, research professors (associate or full) or adjoint professors who have been with 欧美口爆视频 Boulder for at least five years and are widely recognized for a distinguished body of academic or creative achievement and prominence, as well as contributions to the educational and service missions of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder. Each recipient typically gives a lecture in the fall or spring following selection and receives a $2,000 honorarium.

Read the original article from the Department of Physics

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At the program鈥檚 December meeting, Todd Saliman reaffirmed 欧美口爆视频鈥檚 commitment to the quantum education and research happening on campus

The way University of 欧美口爆视频 President Todd Saliman sees it, 鈥�(quantum) is a sector where 欧美口爆视频 is uniquely well-situated... I want us to be the one. I want us to be front of the line. I want us to be leading the world.鈥�

As for the Quantum Scholars he was addressing Wednesday evening, their mission is to think 鈥渃ritically and creatively, and be dynamic human beings,鈥� Saliman said.

Professor Noah Finkelstein co-directs Quantum Scholars with Michael Ritzwoller. (Photo: Casey A. Cass/欧美口爆视频 Boulder)

Saliman was a guest speaker at the December meeting of Quantum Scholars, a program conceived in the University of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder Department of Physics and the College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS) that offers undergraduate students opportunities to learn about the quantum field, including connections with local industry leaders and introduction to new quantum technology.

The Quantum Scholars program includes undergraduates studying physics, engineering and computer science and aims to advance quantum education and workforce development through professional development, co-curricular activities and industrial engagement.

鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to extend what the Quantum Scholars are learning in class to make their education even more marketable and relevant,鈥� said Michael Ritzwoller, a physics professor of distinction and Quantum Scholars founder with CEAS Dean Keith Molenaar. 鈥淢ore than 80% of our graduates eventually work in industry, so Quantum Scholars helps fill that gap.鈥�

Scott Davis (PhDPhys鈥�99), CEO of Vescent Technologies Inc. and a member of the Department of Physics advisory committee, told students at the Wednesday meeting that they are 鈥渁t a special place鈥� and cited the introduced in the U.S. Senate last week, which would authorize $2.7 billion over the next five years for quantum research and development at federal agencies and shift focus 鈥渇rom basic research to practical applications.鈥�

鈥淪o much of that started because of this institution,鈥� Davis said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e really just at the beginning, and we need 欧美口爆视频 to keep doing what you鈥檙e doing鈥攖echnical development, workforce development, inventing the future.鈥�

Supporting scholars

For Denali Jah, a senior majoring in engineering physics who has been a Quantum Scholar since the program began in spring 2023, the benefits of participating in it are many. The $2,500 that Quantum Scholars receive during the academic year鈥攕upported by the Department of Physics and CEAS, as well as contributions from alumni, industry and external partners鈥攇ave his budget some wiggle room so he could participate more fully in research and community initiatives.

欧美口爆视频 President Todd Saliman (left) spoke to Quantum Scholars at the program's monthly meeting. (Photo: Casey A. Cass/欧美口爆视频 Boulder)

鈥淚 was looking for some way to contribute to the physics department and really put my stamp on 欧美口爆视频 before I left,鈥� Jah says. 鈥淧rofessor Ritzwoller and I were talking and he said, 鈥業 really want a quantum hackathon to happen here at 欧美口爆视频,鈥� so Annalise Cabra and I organized the quantum hackathon.

鈥淚t was a really great success on the whole, and a great opportunity for Quantum Scholars to be able to get some industry initiatives that were much better integrated into our program. One way that I see Quantum Scholars is we鈥檙e a curation of student opportunities. Everybody is really working to be able to create more and more initiatives and opportunities throughout campus.鈥�

Luke Coffman, a senior studying physics and mathematics, is leveraging his time as a Quantum Scholar to study 鈥渦seful ideas for quantum computation,鈥� he noted during the Wednesday meeting. Specifically, he鈥檚 interested in molecular simulation for qubit systems and suggested that perhaps quantum sensing will happen before quantum computation.

鈥淭heoretical quantum computing will always be hot,鈥� added Noah Finkelstein, a professor of physics and Quantum Scholars co-director.

In response to a question from Alexander Aronov, a junior studying mechanical engineering, about whether quantum science is in a period of over-hype, Davis noted that the technology field broadly has long existed in a cycle of hype and bust: 鈥淚s that happening in quantum?鈥� he asked. 鈥淚 take a fairly broad view of what it means to be in quantum systems and a quantum player.

鈥淓xploiting quantum to our benefit is not hype; it鈥檚 real鈥� It鈥檚 been slowly building for a long time, especially the amount of money (dedicated to quantum research and development) on the public side because of national security aspects. We exploit the laws of physics to the advantage of humanity, and that鈥檚 not going anywhere.鈥�

Saliman said that as an institution, 欧美口爆视频 is committed to quantum鈥攖o building and leveraging public and private partnerships that help fund the research and development of which Quantum Scholars are or will be a part. 鈥淥ur job is to support smart people, and translating the discoveries made here into practical applications is going to help pay for it.鈥�

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Blair Seidlitz, now a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University, studied near-collisions of nuclear beams at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, and he did so despite having severely limited vision

Blair Seidlitz, who earned his PhD in physics in 2022 from the University of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder, has won the Dissertation Award in Hadronic Physics for his dissertation, the society announced.

Seidlitz鈥檚 dissertation research was on the of the Large Hadron Collider, hosted at the international CERN laboratory in Switzerland. His 欧美口爆视频 Boulder research group, led by Professors Dennis Perepelitsa and Jamie Nagle, works in experimental nuclear physics鈥攊t collides nuclear beams (鈥渋ons") at the LHC to study the fundamental forces of nature under extreme conditions.

The major advance of Seidlitz鈥檚 dissertation was to use these nuclear beams at the LHC in an unusual way. 鈥淗e was interested in the processes not where the beams slam into each other 鈥� but instead the cases where the beams just barely miss each other,鈥� Perepelitsa said.

欧美口爆视频 Boulder physics PhD alum Blair Seidlitz won the American Physical Society (APS) Dissertation Award in Hadronic Physics for his dissertation research on the ATLAS Experiment of the Large Hadron Collider.

鈥淚t turns out that in these cases, a photon emitted by one ion can strike the other, and thus result in rare and unusual 鈥榩hoto-nuclear鈥� collisions 鈥�. The ATLAS detector was not set up to take this kind of data by default. So Blair had to do a lot of work to develop the 鈥榯rigger鈥� (the algorithms that decide which data to even record), to get access to this rare dataset.鈥�

Perepelitsa said this kind of work is unusual for a graduate student; many graduate students work with existing infrastructure or use well-established procedures in research like this. 鈥淏ut Blair really took his idea from the conception stage, to implementing it himself, and helping to deploy it in person during data-taking at CERN,鈥� a bustling scientific community at which Seidlitz spent significant time.

Once Seidlitz had collected the data, he then did a very careful analysis, which necessitated developing some new methods because nobody had really done this kind of thing before, Perepelitsa added.

The surprising result was that these sparse 鈥減hoto-nuclear鈥� collisions exhibited a collective 鈥渇low鈥� behavior among their produced particles鈥斺�渟omething you might only expect in the collisions of large nuclei where there are many, many particles that are produced and interact.鈥�

鈥淗is measurement has come at a time when the scientific community is asking big questions, such as: Just how few particles can one have to still exhibit many-body collective motion? Blair鈥檚 thesis work, by paving the way to experimentally access these unusual datasets, is addressing these open questions head on!鈥�

Seidlitz is now a post-doctoral researcher at Columbia University. He still works at ATLAS, but he now also works at a new experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, in which Perepelitsa and Nagle鈥檚 group at 欧美口爆视频 is closely involved. 鈥淪o we are pleased that we can continue to collaborate with Blair very closely,鈥� Perepelitsa said.

Seidlitz said he hopes to build on his graduate school work. 鈥淭here are actually distinct categories (or types) of photon-nucleus collisions. My thesis work did not sort the different types, but studied them as a whole. In principle, it should be possible to sort these, although it has never been done. That way, we could study the 鈥榝low鈥� properties of each type individually, which would be really interesting.鈥�

Seidlitz said that he and his colleagues will be able to study these types of collisions at the Electron Ion Collider, which is scheduled to be completed in the 2030鈥檚 at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) on Long Island, New York.

Seidlitz said he was surprised to win the APS dissertation award. 鈥淭hey called me while I was in the sPHENIX control room (an experiment at BNL). I don't usually pick up my phone, but it seemed to not be spam, and as fate would have it, it was an official from APS saying I had won.鈥�

Seidlitz has charted a successful academic career even though he has Stargardt's disease, a rare form of macular degeneration that leaves him with approximately 1/20th the visual acuity of average people.

A wheel in the ATLAS detector of the Large Hadron Collider. Blair Seidlitz's dissertation research focused on near-collisions of nuclear beams in ATLAS. (Photo: )

His vision posed many challenges, he said. 鈥淚 guess the first challenge was learning as much as I could and getting through courses without being able to see the black board or projector, where I did most of my learning through textbooks.鈥�

Seidlitz said disability service centers at 欧美口爆视频 Boulder and at his undergraduate institution, the University of Wisconsin, Madison, 鈥渞eally made it possible for me to succeed, from scanning old textbooks to make PDFs, to scanning students' homework so I could grade it when I was a TA and recommending assistive technology.鈥� 

Another challenge was finding a field of research that would work for him. 鈥淏ecause physics that revolves around particle accelerators is so big and complicated, large collaborations are formed and the work is shared. Some people build the detectors鈥攕omething I could not do鈥攁nd others set up data analysis and reconstruction, which is a lot of software to take the signals from individual detectors and turn it into a measurement of a photon with a particular momentum, for example,鈥� Seidlitz explained, adding:

鈥淭his is something I can do! I would say there are still challenges day to day, but they are manageable, and I am very grateful that I am in a place where I can contribute and do valuable work.

Seidlitz grew up in Wisconsin and earned a BS in engineering physics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. As an undergraduate, he conducted research in plasma physics with Cary Forest, applying optical emission spectroscopy techniques for measurements of the electron temperature in the Plasma Couette Experiment and the Madison Plasma Dynamo Experiment.

The American Physical Society is a nonprofit organization working to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics through its research journals, scientific meetings and education, outreach, advocacy and international activities.

APS represents more than 50,000 members, including physicists in academia, national laboratories and industry in the United States and throughout the world.

Top image: The eight toroid magnets surrounding the calorimeter in the ATLAS detector. The calorimeter measures the energies of particles produced when protons collide in the center of the detector. (Photo: )

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General Physics for Majors course designed by 欧美口爆视频 Boulder Professors Eric Cornell and Paul Beale shows students that the furthest reaches of science are built on fundamental concepts

The Nobel laureate was not feeling happy about his minus signs.

He stood back from the blackboard鈥攜es, an actual blackboard on which he wrote with actual chalk鈥攁nd considered the calculus he鈥檇 jokingly hyped just moments before with, 鈥淭his is some of that real calculus sensation. This is why you sat through that whole calculus class: for this moment.鈥�

His team teacher, a noted scientist who this year is marking 40 years teaching physics at the University of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder, called from the back of the classroom, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 right, Eric.鈥�

Professors Paul Beale (left) and Eric Cornell prepare for a Tuesday morning PHYS 1125 class. (Photos: Rachel Sauer)

Advanced math is not always easy with an audience watching鈥攊n this case, about 85 first-year physics, astrophysics and engineering physics students in , General Physics 2 for Majors.

It鈥檚 a class for students who know they want to pursue a field of physics and are newly starting out in it. And it鈥檚 taught by a Nobel laureate.

鈥淚 harken back to freshman physics every day of my life,鈥� explains Eric Cornell, a 欧美口爆视频 Boulder professor adjoint of physics and winner in physics for his work with Bose-Einstein condensates. 鈥淚鈥檓 in a Facebook group with people I met my freshman year in physics.鈥�

In other words, there鈥檚 absolutely no reason a Nobel laureate shouldn鈥檛 teach first-year physics.

Basic, foundational concepts

Cornell and Paul Beale, a 欧美口爆视频 Boulder professor of physics, created the course six years ago, in part to help students interested in pursuing physics to find community and support among like-minded peers. While other introductory physics courses are open to all majors, this one is specifically for physics, astrophysics and engineering physics majors. Steven Pollock, a professor of physics, and Yuan Shi, an assistant professor of physics, in the fall taught the first half of the course, PHYS 1115, which was created by Professors Chuck Rogers and Shijie Zhong.

鈥淲e start from ground zero,鈥� Beale says. 鈥淢ost (of the students) have had some physics in high school, most have seen these ideas before鈥攖hey know that same charges repel. But even students who have had really good high school physics classes, maybe even AP classes, we say, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 great! Take our class.鈥�

鈥淏eing with other physics majors helps them relax and get immersed in the field. Everybody in there really wants to be in there.鈥�

Professor Eric Cornell (center, striped shirt) answers student questions in the physics help room.

A cynic might ask, however, why a Nobel laureate would be teaching a first-year class. Shouldn鈥檛 they be, you know, spending their time in the furthest, most esoteric reaches of physics? Doing the kind of science only a handful of people on the planet can understand?

鈥淚 want to push back on that idea that the basic, foundational concepts of physics don鈥檛 have considerable charm of their own,鈥� Cornell says. 鈥淭his is really fun stuff, and one of the things I like about this course is it gets into really interesting things right away.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 also a hard class,鈥� Beale adds. 鈥淭he concepts are difficult, so the challenge for us is to do everything we can to make them approachable. (The students) have got to get them right even though they鈥檙e hard, because everything else in physics builds on what they learn here.鈥�

Cornell and Beale designed the class not only with beginning physics students in mind, but learning assistants and graduate students as well.

鈥淚n a lot of schools, grad students鈥攚ho might be just one year past undergrad鈥攁re thrown in the classroom and told, 鈥楬ere, go teach,鈥欌�� Cornell says. In this course, however, graduate students assist with weekly tutorials but meet with Beale and Colin West, an associate teaching professor of physics, before each one, because the skills of teaching need to be taught. The same is true for class learning assistants, who are undergraduate students who took the course the previous year.

Cornell and Beale also spend time in the physics help room each week, which is a space where students can drop by for help with anything physics related.

鈥淚 would say that we are a very good teaching department, and not just our graduate program,鈥� Beale says. 鈥淭his is your introduction to physics, and you鈥檙e either going to like it or not, so we put a lot of effort into the first years.鈥�

鈥淲e鈥檙e always asking, 鈥楬ow do we do better teaching?鈥欌�� Cornell adds. 鈥淧eople like Paul and me have the advantage of people in this department who have studied teaching and have tried approaches like using clickers, using a conversational approach, using hands-on demonstrations. There are ongoing discussions about how we can be teaching better.鈥�

Physics with a purple crayon

Sometimes, better teaching means an apology: 鈥淚t鈥檚 my sorry duty to apologize for all the sins of physicists who went before me, and electrical engineers. And Ben Franklin,鈥� Cornell said, writing 鈥渟orry!!鈥� on the blackboard and underlining it twice. 鈥淚鈥檓 here to apologize for this thing called 鈥榩otential.鈥� The whole rest of your life you鈥檙e going to be thinking about electric potential. It鈥檚 unavoidable. Your intuition will overwhelm your minus-sign errors.

Professor Paul Beale (standing, blue sweater) walks around the classroom during PHYS 1125 to help students and answer questions.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a 鈥榮orry, but...鈥� though, which is another way to say, 鈥楽uck it up.鈥欌��

While Cornell pivoted to voltage, 鈥渁 happier, friendlier term (than electric potential),鈥� Beale walked slowly among the rows of seats, stopping to sit by students who had questions and prompt them toward their response on class-wide clicker questions.

Pranay Raj Poosa, a freshman majoring in astrophysics who hopes to study black holes and neutron stars, cites Cornell鈥檚 and Beale鈥檚 enthusiasm for physics and their personal, conversational approach to teaching as two of the reasons he likes the class: 鈥淭he fun they generate makes my understanding crystal clear,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he first day of class, (Cornell) made a joke about himself, which I personally felt was clap-worthy.鈥�

Poosa added that he was in 鈥渦tter disbelief鈥� when his advisor mentioned a Nobel laureate would be teaching the class.

For Min Wang, a sophomore majoring in physics and interested in theoretical neuroscience and writing science fiction, Cornell and Beale have shown her that 鈥済reat minds are not the ones who are walking in front of others all the time. They always slow down and let the young generation be on their shoulders.

鈥淓ven though what Professor Cornell taught us is just a tiny piece of knowledge in his mind, he shows amazing patience to every student and shows us how profound even a little, tiny bit in physics can be. And since I have time conflicts with all the office hours, Professor Beale gives me a special office hour time according to my school schedule. It is after class and work time on Friday! They make me feel welcome in the world of physics.鈥�

Wang noted that while learning physics is not without its pains, she doesn鈥檛 feel alone in tackling them because she is part of a 鈥渓ovely and supportive physics community created by the professors.鈥�

Which is good, because it was time to do 鈥渁 very modest amount of algebra, the kind you could do with a purple crayon if you鈥檝e got one,鈥� Cornell said, explaining how they could figure capacitance between two metal plates and then telling the students, 鈥淚鈥檓 going to show you something which I think is very neat. It鈥檚 kind of an advanced idea, giving you a taste of physics to come.鈥�

The key thing to remember? 鈥淭he whole idea of physics is zooming all the way into what does matter and ignoring what doesn鈥檛.鈥�

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Astrophysicist who confirmed black hole at galaxy鈥檚 center to speak March 5 at 欧美口爆视频 Boulder

Andrea Ghez, recipient of the 2020 Nobel Prize in physics, will give the 53rd George Gamow Memorial Lecture March 5 at the University of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder.

Ghez, Lauren B. Leichtman and Arthur E. Levine Professor of Physics and Astronomy at UCLA, shared half of the prize with Reinhard Genzel of the University of California, Berkeley.

Andrea Ghez, 2020 Nobel Prize winner in physics, will give the 53rd George Gamow Memorial Lecture March 5 at the University of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder. (Photo: The Nobel Foundation)

The pair were recognized by the Nobel committee for their discovery of a 鈥渟upermassive鈥� black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Ghez, head of UCLA鈥檚 Galactic Center Group, solved the question, what exactly is 鈥淪agittarius A*,鈥� which was first detected as a mysterious radio signal in 1933. 

鈥淚 see being a scientist as really fundamentally being a puzzle-solver,鈥� Ghez in 2021. 鈥淧utting together the pieces, trying to find the evidence, trying to see the bigger picture.鈥�

   What: 53rd George Gamow Memorial Lecture

  Who: Andrea Ghez, recipient of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics

  When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 5

  Where: Macky Auditorium, University of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder campus

  Tickets: Free and open to the public

Learn more 

She helped develop a new technology to correct the distorting effects of Earth鈥檚 atmosphere. Gathering data from the world鈥檚 largest telescope system, the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, she and her team continue to plumb the depths of the galactic center 26,000 light years distant.

While Albert Einstein鈥檚 epochal work on relativity remains the best description of how gravity works, Ghez says it can鈥檛 account for gravity inside a black hole. Through what she calls 鈥渆xtreme astrophysics,鈥� she seeks to go where the pioneering astrophysicist could not.

鈥淓instein鈥檚 right for now,鈥� she said. 鈥淗owever, his theory is showing vulnerability. 鈥� At some point we will need to move 鈥� to a more comprehensive theory of gravity.鈥�

A member of the National Academy of Sciences and author of a 2006 children鈥檚 book, 鈥淵ou Can Be a Woman Astronomer,鈥� Ghez is widely recognized as a role model for young women.

鈥淪eeing people who look like you, or are different from you, succeeding shows you that there鈥檚 an opportunity,鈥� she said.

Top image: An artist's concept illustrating a supermassive black hole with millions to billions times the mass of the Sun. ()

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In a little-known chapter of university history, the Manhattan Project scientist taught for several years in the Department of Physics, and his legacy appears in the fabric of the department

Al Bartlett, the legendary University of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder physics professor, was a judge for the combined 欧美口爆视频-Wyoming high school science fair in the mid-1950s. One year at the awards banquet, he later recalled to author K.C. Cole, many of the winners suddenly were from Pagosa Springs High School.

Pagosa Springs? Where even was that? As each Pagosa winner was announced, the faces of students from bigger, more prestigious Denver high schools fell further, Bartlett recalled. Many of the Pagosa students were Hispanic, many from 鈥渙rdinary origins鈥� and many bussed to the competition by their science teacher.

As for that teacher, Bartlett would later learn it was someone with whom he shared a background鈥攚orking on the Manhattan Project developing the atomic bomb. And someone who, within several years, would become his colleague in the 欧美口爆视频 Boulder Department of Physics.

Paul Beale, a 欧美口爆视频 Boulder professor of physics, remembers Bartlett describing how he asked someone about this new science teacher and was informed the gentleman鈥檚 name was 鈥淥ppen-something.鈥�

Frank Oppenheimer (left) was played by Dylan Arnold (right) in Christopher Nolan's Oscar-nominated film Oppenheimer. (Frank Oppenheimer photo: Bettman Archive; Dylan Arnold photo: Universal Pictures)

Ahhh. Well, OK then, that explained it. Oppenheimer. Frank Oppenheimer, younger brother of J. Robert Oppenheimer, brilliant particle physicist, Manhattan Project scientist, blacklisted as a communist and, in a history not widely known, onetime 欧美口爆视频 Boulder faculty member.

Since the summer 2023 release of Christopher Nolan鈥檚 film Oppenheimer, which on Tuesday earned 13 Academy Award nominations, the surname has become popularly synonymous with science. While Robert may be the more famous brother鈥攁nd the film鈥檚 subject, due to directing the Los Alamos Laboratory when the Manhattan Project was housed there鈥擣rank鈥檚 scientific legacy runs similarly deep.

In the several years he taught physics at 欧美口爆视频 Boulder, Frank Oppenheimer not only made science exciting and accessible, but he initiated the creation of the Library of Experiments. This library allowed instructors greater freedom in tailoring physics instruction, getting away from the 鈥渄o these steps and this should happen鈥� approach, and allowing students hands-on learning.

There were no 鈥渂lack boxes, no gimmicks, no contrivances to make an experiment work in accordance with theory,鈥� recalls Jerry Leigh, who was hired at 欧美口爆视频 Boulder to work with Oppenheimer on the Library of Experiments. 鈥淪tudents could apply textbook principles to an apparatus directly, and 鈥榮ee鈥� the principles contained therein.鈥�

It was an exciting way to learn science, Leigh says, and Oppenheimer was excited about science.

A winding path

By the time Oppenheimer arrived at 欧美口爆视频 Boulder in 1959, he had already helped develop the bomb that ended World War II, been branded a communist, sold a Van Gogh painting to buy a ranch and guided a high school of fewer than 300 students to state science fair glory. Among other things, of course.

Following the war and his work on the Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer accepted a position teaching physics at the University of Minnesota. However, he was 鈥渙uted鈥� as a communist in a 1947 Washington Times-Herald article and eventually called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1949.

He initially denied any communist affiliation, but eventually testified that he and his wife, Jackie, had been members of the American Communist Party for about three years in the late 1930s, when they lived in California and were active in efforts to desegregate a public swimming pool in Pasadena.

As a result of his HUAC testimony, Oppenheimer was pressured to resign his position at the University of Minnesota, was denied his passport and could not get a job anywhere working in physics. He was understandably angry, and noted in a letter to his friend, esteemed physicist Robert Wilson, 鈥淎t the moment it seems that all organizations that men create are either impotent or monsters."

However, admitting that he 鈥渁cted badly鈥� by not better explaining himself to the HUAC, Oppenheimer further wrote, 鈥淚 think if one does not try to explain what one believes in and still pretends to be an intellectual, then soon one ceases to believe in anything."

Frank Oppenheimer demonstrates a gyroscope at Pagosa Springs High School (left) and uses a microscope in 1967. (Left photo: Stanely Fowler, Oppenheimer's former student; right photo: Bill Johnson/The Denver Post)

Oppenheimer鈥檚 father had been a passionate art collector and from him Oppenheimer inherited, among other works, the Van Gogh that he sold to buy a 1,500-acre ranch near Pagosa Springs in southern 欧美口爆视频. Frank and Jackie, and their son and daughter, ranched cattle for about 10 years, becoming good neighbors and active in the community, Cole wrote in her book Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens: Frank Oppenheimer and His Astonishing Exploratorium.

When a teaching position opened at Pagosa Springs High School, Oppenheimer, who earned a PhD in physics from Caltech, seemed right for it but didn鈥檛 have state teaching credentials. The community, Cole wrote, was appalled that the state wouldn鈥檛 give him a license to teach, so he was granted temporary licensure while taking correspondence courses in education.

He wrote in a research paper for his credentials, 鈥淚 am certain that mathematicians must frequently run into some object that they want to play with or investigate much as one is always tempted to play with magnets or gyroscopes or Silly Putty.鈥� It foreshadowed his later work to help evolve science education so that it was fun, hands-on and playful.

Excited about teaching

Oppenheimer earned his full teaching credential in 1957 and at that point was teaching physics, chemistry, biology and general science in a community of about 850 people that hadn鈥檛 previously had a dedicated science teacher. Not long thereafter, Oppenheimer鈥檚 students began arriving at the University of 欧美口爆视频 and wowing their professors, physicist Hal Zirin told Cole.

In summer 1958, Oppenheimer and his family moved to Boulder in part so he could position himself for opportunities at 欧美口爆视频. He helped develop a new National Science Foundation curriculum and taught in the Summer Institute for High School Physics Teachers. He also taught special physics classes throughout Jefferson County.

During this time, Cole wrote, Oppenheimer 鈥渞ealized that the teachers themselves had to be excited about the material and engaged in discovery or they'd never be able to inspire, or even adequately teach, their students.鈥�

After returning to Pagosa Springs so his son could complete his sophomore year of high school, Oppenheimer鈥檚 strategy of positioning himself for entry into 欧美口爆视频 faculty paid off, and in 1959 he was offered a position as a research associate. His past in the American Communist Party continued haunting him, though, and several members of the Board of Regents attempted to block his appointment.

Fortunately, , who was then chair of the 欧美口爆视频 Boulder Department of Physics, was strongly on Oppenheimer鈥檚 side, showing tremendous courage in the face of intimidating opposition, Beale says. Brittin sought letters of recommendation from such esteemed physicists as Hans Bethe, George Gamow and Victor Weisskopf. During the Board of Regents meeting to determine Oppenheimer鈥檚 fate at 欧美口爆视频, Bartlett and several of his physics colleagues waited anxiously outside the door, Bartlett recalled to Cole.

Oppenheimer became an associate professor in 1961 and a full professor in 1964.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC2XWIWkZ8A&list=PLaWHFWu_46_xWlImHKbee4c5tDNTaWxcG&index=15]

While at 欧美口爆视频 Boulder, Frank Oppenheimer created a video series explaining the various experiments in the Library of Experiments. .

Building a Library of Experiments

Oppenheimer was already established in the physics faculty when Allan Franklin, now a professor emeritus, joined the faculty as a young scientist. Though he could easily have been in awe of the famous鈥攕ome might say infamous鈥攑hysicist, Franklin recalls Oppenheimer as kind and generous to an early career scientist.

鈥淗e invited us to his home on High Street in downtown Boulder,鈥� Franklin remembers. 鈥淗e was quite a modest guy, and I never remember him being bitter about how badly he鈥檇 been treated.鈥�

Franklin recalls a friend telling him about complimenting Oppenheimer on the collection of art hanging on his living room walls, noting to Oppenheimer that a particular painting was 鈥溾�檛he best copy of Picasso I鈥檝e ever seen.鈥� And Frank says, 鈥業t鈥檚 not a copy.鈥欌��

Oppenheimer also never expressed a sense that he existed in his famous brother鈥檚 shadow, Franklin says: 鈥淛.R. was a theorist but Frank was experimental. He was really interested in teaching, and he completely revised our sophomore modern physics labs.鈥�

Those revisions would evolve into the Library of Experiments, which created a 鈥渃afeteria鈥� approach to physics experiments. Rather than every student in class doing the same experiments, a student could choose the required number of experiments that interested them the most.

Leigh recalls that Oppenheimer had clear ideas about what he wanted an experiment to be. 鈥淚 was to assist teaching assistants with growing classes, devising and fabricating fixes for (Oppenheimer鈥檚) often crudely built apparatus and repair lab documentation written hastily without editing,鈥� Leigh says.

  欧美口爆视频 Boulder has a broad history of recruiting former Los Alamos scientists. Former 欧美口爆视频 Boulder President , through his work in a Pacific War Targeting unit, was assigned to the Atomic Bomb Targeting Committee in 1945, which may have been when he came in contact with Los Alamos physicists, mathematicians and scholars. After the war ended, David Hawkins and Al Bartlett came to 欧美口爆视频 Boulder in 1947 and 1950, respectively. But the real flow of former Los Alamos scientists came later, under presidents ,  and : George Gamow in 1956; Stanis艂aw Ulam and Edward Condon in 1963; and Robert D. Richtmyer in 1964. These 欧美口爆视频 Boulder presidents were committed to bringing in quality faculty, regardless of criticism. In addition, after Sputnik and rising Congressional and grant support for space sciences, support for physics, mathematics and engineering at 欧美口爆视频 Boulder grew considerably.

鈥�David Hays, University Libraries archivist

鈥淎t first, Frank was somewhat distant, but friendly. Students were grouped at each experiment in twos or threes, so Frank circulated among the groups and politely offered suggestions and asked challenging questions of students, yet never intruding or confronting them.

鈥淥ver time, Frank began to approach me saying, 鈥楾here is something want to show you.鈥� He would demonstrate some apparatus, pointing out items in need of improvement. The first involved a Polaroid camera that was mounted on a heavy stand that was tilted to provide data. The motion being studied was sinusoidal, and tilting the camera abruptly changed the field of view so the data was often bad.  So, I had a shop make a mount that changed the camera鈥檚 position sinusoidally. Data became perfect and Frank beamed with joy.鈥�

In another experiment, a steel ball was held up by an electromagnet and then dropped, providing a measurement of Earth's gravitation. The ball often stuck to the magnet instead of falling, so Leigh glued a small fiber washer to the magnet and fixed the problem, 鈥渁nd Frank glowed with satisfaction,鈥� Leigh says.

Oppenheimer envisioned experiments for radioactive decay, the Doppler effect and Millikan oil drops, among many other elements of physics, and received national acclaim for the Library of Experiments while he was at 欧美口爆视频. 

"His 'library' of sophisticated science toys operated in typical Frank style鈥攚hich is to say with a large measure of anarchy," Cole wrote. "He insisted on not having a lab manual, for instance, because he thought it would be too confining and inhibit free exploration. He liked to work with students one on one, encouraging them to ask questions and always making suggestions: 'Why don't you try this?'"

Having a lab with Oppenheimer was an incomparable educational experience, even for a professional, Bartlett told Cole. "He was personally setting an example of how fascinating it was to be engrossed in the excitement of learning physics. His enthusiasm was contagious. He seemed to take so much pleasure getting other people to see the interesting things in what he was doing."

In retrospect, it鈥檚 easy to see that Oppenheimer was testing ideas for what would become the Exploratorium, a hands-on public learning laboratory for all ages in San Francisco, California. Prior to founding it in 1969, Oppenheimer was awarded the first of two Guggenheim Fellowships in 1965 to study the history of physics and research bubble chambers at University College London. (The University of 欧美口爆视频 granted Oppenheimer a series of leaves until he became professor emeritus in 1979.)

Left photo: Frank Oppenheimer (right) with his older brother, J. Robert Oppenheimer. Right photo: Frank Oppenheimer in his later years in San Francisco; he died in 1985. (Left photo: AIP Emilio Segr猫 Visual Archives; right photo: K.C. Cole/courtesy Houghton Mifflin)

A legacy of learning

Oppenheimer into a nationally and internationally recognized center for public science, never losing his curiosity or enthusiasm for science, Franklin says. He recalls visiting Oppenheimer and his wife in San Francisco around 1970.

鈥淭hey had a house near the top of Lombard Street, and when I was staying with them I remember seeing an ad in the paper that Jefferson Airplane were going to be playing at the Fillmore West,鈥� Franklin says. 鈥淚 asked Frank if he wanted to go and he said yes, which shouldn鈥檛 have been surprising because he was always curious and open to new things. We were older than the rest of the audience, and people were looking at us like we were narcs. But they played a 30-minute version of 鈥榃hite Rabbit鈥� at that show, and I remember Frank was really into it.鈥�

Despite Oppenheimer鈥檚 relatively short time at 欧美口爆视频, his legacy is woven into the fabric of the Department of Physics. 鈥淭eaching and learning have been central for this department forever," Beale says. "Like when Frank was here, we have students doing hands-on, real science鈥攑ublishable stuff when they鈥檙e even freshmen and sophomores. One example from the COVID era was something students could work on online, using this huge dataset available from NASA that had not been combed through at a level it needed to be. So, students were doing that real-world data analysis and then having a published paper in an astrophysical journal about solar flares at the end of it.

鈥淚 tell students when I first meet them coming out of high school that science is a human endeavor; there has to be room for trial and error. If you do an experiment and get what you expect every time, you haven鈥檛 really learned anything or done science. I think that鈥檚 why we wanted Frank here in the first place, because he strongly believed that, too.鈥�

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Gary Wall, a 1970 欧美口爆视频 Boulder physics graduate, won the Los Alamos Medal in recognition of more than 50 years of distinguished work at Los Alamos National Laboratory

During the summer of 1970, his first year working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Gary Wall was something of a hippie and wore a large peace sign pendant to work most days. He still has it, and there鈥檚 nothing subtle about it.

鈥淚 initially had reservations about working there,鈥� Wall recalls of his graduate research assistant position at the physical and scientific home of the Manhattan Project. 鈥淚 applied because my girlfriend at the time was from Los Alamos.鈥�

However, it wasn鈥檛 very long before 鈥淚 became convinced the nuclear deterrent is what is keeping us out of world wars,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he purpose of a nuclear deterrent is to keep the peace. I did struggle that first summer when I found out that I was going to be working in the nuclear weapons group鈥擨 struggled with whether that鈥檚 really what I wanted to do鈥攂ut every day I learned more about how we鈥檙e supporting the work of protecting the country and protecting the world from a third world war, hopefully.鈥�

Gary Wall accepts the Los Alamos Medal from Laboratory Director Thom Mason at a special awards ceremony. (Photo: Los Alamos National Laboratory)

Since that summer of 1970, a month after he graduated the University of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in physics, Wall has become one of the most distinguished designers in the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Weapons Physics group. In recognition of his more than 50 years of work, he won the Los Alamos Medal, the laboratory鈥檚 highest honor.

The Los Alamos Medal recognizes recipients who have made contributions that changed the course of science, made major enhancement to the laboratory鈥檚 ability to achieve its mission or established a major direction for the laboratory and the nation.

鈥淎ll the fields in physics are challenging, and they鈥檙e stimulating,鈥� Wall says. 鈥淣ational labs are great places to work, and physics is a great field. There are always new frontiers to investigate in physics, and even 50 years later, I鈥檓 still making discoveries in physics.鈥�

A love for science

Growing up in Englewood, 欧美口爆视频, Wall was always drawn to science鈥攃harting his own path in a family in which his father did construction and remodeling work and his mother was a homemaker. He joined his father on jobs during summer months and dove back into the solution-finding and figuring-things-out of science when he resumed classes at Englewood High School.

He won a 鈥斺�渢he only way I could attend college, because we couldn鈥檛 have afforded it otherwise,鈥� Wall says鈥攁nd began classes at 欧美口爆视频 Boulder in 1965, studying physics and math. The math was to help him keep up with the physics, he says.

His junior year abroad in England explains why he graduated in 1970 instead of 1969, he says, 鈥渂ut it was a fun year out. It was really interesting to study American history from a British perspective and to study British literature in the country where it was written.鈥�

After graduating, and encouraged by his girlfriend, Wall applied for and received a graduate research-assistant position at LANL. He thought it would just be for the summer, since an advisor at 欧美口爆视频 recommended he pursue graduate studies at a different university than where he completed his undergraduate work. So, in the fall of 1970, he headed to the University of Minnesota.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 like the big city, and I definitely didn鈥檛 like six months of winter,鈥� he says, so the following summer he headed back to Los Alamos, and that鈥檚 where he stayed. He earned his master鈥檚 degree in mathematics from the University of New Mexico in 1976.

Gary Wall running near his Los Alamos, New Mexico, home.

Balancing physics and engineering

In his undergraduate studies at 欧美口爆视频, Wall had been fascinated with nuclear physics. As he learned in his second summer at LANL, and through the span of his five decades of work there, all areas of physics are involved in designing nuclear weapons鈥攏ot just nuclear physics.

It鈥檚 a little difficult to describe what his work has entailed because the bulk of it is classified (Wall has a Q security clearance, the equivalent of top secret), 鈥渂ut the idea is that there is a requirement from the Department of Defense for some new weapon to go on some new delivery system and they set requirements for what they want,鈥� Wall explains. 鈥淲e take those requirements and put together ideas for what kind of device will meet them.

鈥淭hen, there鈥檚 a lot of physics design and engineering design to put together a device. Then, there鈥檚 a lot of testing of the function of the device, and at least until 1992 (when LANL conducted its last underground test at the Nevada Test Site), we鈥檇 go out to Nevada and do underground tests to verify that what we designed will work.鈥�

On his first test at the Nevada Test Site, Wall was a junior member of the design team and had been tasked with writing a pre-shot report for a particular nuclear test his team had been working on. When it came time to do the test in Nevada, 鈥淚 was on the spot having to say how well it was going to work,鈥� he says. 鈥淎s a junior member of the team, that was a lot of responsibility.鈥�

Over the years, there were designs that didn鈥檛 work the way they were supposed to, but failures are also part of scientific learning, Wall says. As computer technology advanced, the LANL nuclear design group grew its capacities鈥攗sing computer design calculations to look at variations and uncertainties. Plus, every design went through a battery of internal peer review and sometimes even inter-lab peer review with other national laboratories.

鈥淭he internal peer review was pretty intense, so that by the time we got to fielding tests in Nevada, we were reasonably confident that the design was sound,鈥� Wall says.

鈥淚n this work, there鈥檚 physics and there鈥檚 engineering. We can design things in the computer, but then engineers have to figure out how to build it. It鈥檚 a give and take between the computer design and what can actually be built.

Gary Wall stands near the location of Divider, the last nuclear test before the current moratorium. (Photo: Los Alamos National Laboratory)

鈥淭he piece we do is called physics design, and we use all the different areas of physics that feed into the function of a nuclear weapon鈥攃odes, high explosives, hydrodynamics, material properties. Then, the design that gets finalized also has to meet requirements for being transported and actually being put on a delivery system, it has to meet environmental requirements. So, those are requirements we have to meet as well.鈥�

Still learning

Though Wall technically retired in 2018, he still works half-time when he and his wife aren鈥檛 traveling. In 2005, he was named a laboratory fellow in recognition of special achievement, so now his title is lab associate fellow. One of the things he relishes most in his position now is mentoring the next generation of scientists.

鈥淕ary鈥檚 commitment to mentoring the next generation of nuclear weapons scientists is just as鈥攊f not more鈥攊mpressive than his long list of accomplishments,鈥� Bob Webster, deputy laboratory director for weapons at LANL, said in a statement about the award.

鈥淟os Alamos Laboratory has been a wonderful place to learn to be a scientist,鈥� Wall says. 鈥淭he lab does a lot beyond weapons, so there鈥檚 lots of opportunity to focus on various aspects of physics and fielding experiments that focus on different parts of physics. It鈥檚 a place where I鈥檓 still learning.鈥�

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One way physicists seek clues to unravel the mysteries of the universe is by smashing matter together and inspecting the debris. But these types of destructive experiments, while incredibly informative, have limits.

We are two scientists who study nuclear and using CERN鈥檚 Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland. Working with an international group of nuclear and particle physicists, our team realized that hidden in the data from previous studies was a remarkable and innovative experiment.

In a new paper published in Physical Review Letters, we developed a new method with our colleagues for measuring .

Our novel approach looks at the times incoming particles in the accelerator whiz by each other rather than the times they smash together in head-on collisions. Surprisingly, this approach enables far more accurate measurements of the tau particle鈥檚 wobble than previous techniques. This is the first time in nearly 20 years scientists have measured this wobble, known as the , and it may help illuminate tantalizing cracks .

Top of the page:The Large Hadron Collider at CERN can be used to study many kinds of fundamental particles, including mysterious and rare tau particles. Above: Electrons, muons and taus all wobble in a magnetic field like a spinning top. Measuring the wobbling speed can provide clues into quantum physics. Jesse Liu,

Why measure a wobble?

Electrons, the building blocks of atoms, have two heavier cousins called the . Taus are the heaviest in this family of three and the most mysterious, as they exist only for minuscule amounts of time.

Interestingly, when you place an electron, muon or tau inside a magnetic field, these particles wobble in a manner similar to how a spinning top wobbles on a table. This wobble is called a particle鈥檚 magnetic moment. It is possible to predict how fast these particles should wobble using the 鈥� scientists鈥� best theory of how particles interact.

Since the 1940s, physicists have been interested in measuring magnetic moments to reveal intriguing . According to quantum physics, clouds of particles and antiparticles are constantly . These fleeting fluctuations slightly alter how fast electrons, muons and taus wobble inside a magnetic field. By measuring this wobble very precisely, physicists can peer into this cloud to uncover possible hints of undiscovered particles.

Electrons, muons and taus are three closely related particles in the Standard Model of particle physics 鈥� scientists鈥� current best description of the fundamental laws of nature. 

Testing electrons, muons and taus

In 1948, theoretical physicist Julian Schwinger first calculated how the quantum cloud . Since then, experimental physicists have measured the speed of the electron鈥檚 wobble to an extraordinary .

The heavier the particle, the more its wobble will change because of undiscovered new particles lurking in its quantum cloud. Since electrons are so light, this limits their sensitivity to new particles.

Muons and taus are much heavier but also far shorter-lived than electrons. While muons exist only for mere microseconds, scientists at Fermilab near Chicago measured the muon鈥檚 magnetic moment to in 2021. They found that muons wobbled noticeably faster than Standard Model predictions, suggesting unknown particles may be appearing in the muon鈥檚 quantum cloud.

Taus are the heaviest particle of the family 鈥� 17 times more massive than a muon and 3,500 times heavier than an electron. This makes them much more in the quantum clouds. But taus are also the hardest to see, since they live for just a millionth of the time a muon exists.

To date, the best measurement of the tau鈥檚 magnetic moment was made in 2004 using at CERN. Though an incredible scientific feat, after multiple years of collecting data that experiment could measure the speed of the tau鈥檚 wobble to only . Unfortunately, to test the Standard Model, physicists would need a measurement .

Instead of colliding two nuclei head-on to create tau particles, two lead ions can whiz past each other in a near miss and still produce taus. Jesse Liu,  

Lead ions for near-miss physics

Since the 2004 measurement of the tau鈥檚 magenetic moment, physicists have been seeking new ways to measure the tau wobble.

The Large Hadron Collider usually smashes the nuclei of two atoms together 鈥� that is why it is called a collider. These head-on collisions create a that can include taus, but the noisy conditions preclude careful measurements of the tau鈥檚 magnetic moment.

From 2015 to 2018, there was an experiment at CERN that was designed primarily to allow nuclear physicists to study created in head-on collisions. The particles used in this experiment were lead nuclei that had been stripped of their electrons 鈥� called lead ions. Lead ions are electrically charged and produce .

The electromagnetic fields of lead ions contain particles of light called photons. When two lead ions collide, their photons can also collide and convert all their energy into a single pair of particles. It was these photon collisions that scientists used to .

These lead ion experiments ended in 2018, but it wasn鈥檛 until 2019 that one of us, Jesse Liu, teamed up with particle physicist Lydia Beresford in Oxford, England, and realized the data from the same lead ion experiments could potentially be used to do something new: measure the tau鈥檚 magnetic moment.

. It goes like this: Lead ions are so small that they often miss each other in collision experiments. But occasionally, the ions pass very close to each other without touching. When this happens, their accompanying photons can still smash together while the ions continue flying on their merry way.

These photon collisions can create a variety of particles 鈥� like the muons in the previous experiment, and also taus. But without the chaotic fireworks produced by head-on collisions, these near-miss events are far quieter and ideal for measuring traits of the elusive tau.

Much to our excitement, when the team looked back at data from 2018, indeed these lead ion near misses were creating tau particles. There was a new experiment hidden in plain sight!

The Large Hadron Collider accelerates particles to incredibly high speeds before trying to smash particles together, but not all attempts result in successful collisions. ,

First measurement of tau wobble in two decades

In April 2022, the CERN team announced that we had found during lead ion near misses. Using that data, the team was also able to measure the tau magnetic moment 鈥� the first time such a measurement had been done since 2004. The final results were published on Oct. 12, 2023.

This landmark result measured the tau wobble to two decimal places. Much to our astonishment, this method tied the previous best measurement using only one month of data recorded in 2018.

After no experimental progress for nearly 20 years, this result opens an entirely new and important path toward the tenfold improvement in precision needed to test Standard Model predictions. Excitingly, more data is on the horizon.

The Large Hadron Collider just restarted , after routine maintenance and upgrades. Our team plans to quadruple the sample size of lead ion near-miss data by 2025. This increase in data will double the accuracy of the measurement of the tau magnetic moment, and improvements to analysis methods may go even further.

Tau particles are one of physicists鈥� best windows to the enigmatic quantum world, and we are excited for surprises that upcoming results may reveal about the fundamental nature of the universe.

, Research Fellow in Physics, and , Associate Professor of Physics,

This article is republished from  under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

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欧美口爆视频 Boulder professors Noah Finkelstein of physics and Valerie Otero of education have won the 2023 Svend Pedersen Award and Lecture from Stockholm University

Two experts in science education at the University of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder have won the Svend Pedersen Award and Lecture of 2023 for their 鈥渕ajor and lasting鈥� contribution to science education, Stockholm University has announced.

Noah Finkelstein, professor of physics, and Valerie Otero, professor of science education, share the 2023 award and are planning to deliver a joint lecture in Sweden early next year.

Stockholm University bestows the Svend Pedersen Award and Lecture annually to a researcher who has made a 鈥渕ajor and lasting contribution鈥� within the fields of mathematics education or science education internationally. 

The award, which was unsolicited, recognizes their joint contribution to 鈥渢eacher education praxis.鈥� The cross-disciplinary collaboration between physics and education 鈥渓ed to the development of the highly influential and successful Learning Assistant Program,鈥� Stockholm University said. 

Noah Finkelstein and Valerie Otero

鈥淔inkelstein and Otero are both leading researchers in physics/science education, and both their individual and collaborative work has gained recognition internationally and inspired researchers at the Department of Teaching and Learning at Stockholm University,鈥� the award citation notes.

Finkelstein鈥檚 research focuses on university students鈥� interests and capacities in physics and also on educational transformations. Finkelstein is one of leads of the Physics Education Research (PER) group and was founding co-director, with Otero, of 欧美口爆视频鈥檚 Center for STEM Learning.

Otero鈥檚 research focuses on the interplay of learning environments, instructional teams and materials that make learning more accessible. Otero is the faculty director and co-founder of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder鈥檚 Learning Assistant Program and the International Learning Assistant Alliance.

Finkelstein鈥檚 research projects range from the specifics of students鈥� learning particular concepts to the departmental and institutional scales of sustainable educational transformation. His research has yielded more than 150 publications.

He is increasingly involved in education policy and in 2010 testified before the U.S. Congress on the state of STEM education at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He serves on many national boards, including chairing both the American Physical Society鈥檚 Committee on Education and PER Topical Group.  

He is a Fellow of both the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Presidential Teaching Scholar and the inaugural Timmerhaus Teaching Ambassador for the University of 欧美口爆视频 system.

Explaining his research focus, Finkelstein says, 鈥淎t root, I see higher education as a fundamental public good鈥攁dvancing the lives of individuals and capacities of our societies more broadly. In the long haul, I know of no better way to enhance societies and individuals' lives than to support the core missions of our colleges and universities, and to help them realize the promises that they hold toward these ends.鈥� 

He acknowledges that there is much work still to do. 鈥淎nd that's where I spend my time鈥攖hrough teaching and educational programs, through my research and scholarly work, and through my professional service efforts. I particularly focus on higher education鈥攃olleges and universities鈥攁s these are a tremendous resource and lever for change in our broader educational system.鈥�

Partly in response to expert warnings that the nation was falling behind its international peers in science education, U.S. educators have in the past two decades renewed their focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (or STEM) education. This focus is reflected in levels of funding, national discourse, programs focused in STEM, numbers of students, diversity of students and even faculty hiring trends, Finkelstein says. 

 

I see higher education as a fundamental public good鈥攁dvancing the lives of individuals and capacities of our societies more broadly. In the long haul, I know of no better way to enhance societies and individuals' lives than to support the core missions of our colleges and universities, and to help them realize the promises that they hold toward these ends.鈥� 

 

鈥淭wo decades ago, it was far less common to find discipline-based education researchers鈥攆olks such as myself hired into disciplinary departments to conduct research on education from within,鈥� he observes, adding that when he was hired in 2003, 欧美口爆视频 Boulder was 鈥渆xtremely forward-looking鈥� in such a hire. 

鈥淣ow it is both much more common and 欧美口爆视频 has established itself as an international leader in this space, boasting researchers across a wide array of disciplinary departments focusing on education and in schools of education focusing on undergraduate science learning,鈥� he says. 

Finkelstein also notes that educators have broadened goals in their courses 鈥渢o focus on the whole array of learning and educational practice, rather than the initial staples of attending to students鈥� conceptual understanding and algorithmic capacities.鈥� 

Now, he adds, 鈥渨e are attending to how students think about our fields; what habits of mind they are developing; how we build inclusive environments and support a sense of belonging among the breadth of learners; who we are not including and why.鈥�

Additionally, educators have also moved way from viewing their jobs as 鈥渇ixing students鈥� or addressing their "deficiencies" and now place greater emphases on the 鈥渟ystems that our learners are participating in to support their substantial capacities.鈥�

Otero is internationally recognized for her foundational work with the Learning Assistant (LA) model and the International LA Alliance. The LA model was established in 2001 when Otero was hired by the University of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder in STEM education and as the first physics education researcher at 欧美口爆视频 Boulder. 

She is a President鈥檚 Teaching Scholar and served as an advisor for NASA, on committees for the National Academy of Science and is a fellow of the American Physical Society, which awarded her team the Excellence in Physics Education Award in 2019 for their work on the LA model. 

The LA model improves student success by increasing the diversity of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder鈥檚 instructional teams through the inclusion of pedagogically trained undergraduate LAs. Otero鈥檚 team provides continuing development opportunities for professors and undergraduates, supporting their growth as educational leaders, mentors and state-of-the-art educational innovators. 

鈥淲orking with LAs has helped me refresh my teaching strategies and resist the temptation to just do what's worked in the past,鈥� a participating professor commented. 鈥淚 enjoy helping LAs take on responsibility and gain confidence in their leadership skills, and in turn, this experience reminds me of the greater purpose and goals of education.鈥�

LAs rarely provide direct instruction; instead, they facilitate group interactions, answer questions that students may be embarrassed to ask instructors and give general guidance such as how to study and where to find health care resources. 

They relate to students, give them voice, care about them and help them learn. LAs plan and reflect with professors, providing information about how students are experiencing the course, bringing students closer to the professor, especially in large courses. 

 

Learning Assistants maintain both a peer and educator role, which may allow the breaking down of psychological barriers in the minds of students due to formal boundaries, possibly preventing them from seeking help for fear of bothering the professor or appearing incompetent.鈥�

 

 participating LA observed, 鈥淟As maintain both a peer and educator role, which may allow the breaking down of psychological barriers in the minds of students due to formal boundaries, possibly preventing them from seeking help for fear of bothering the professor or appearing incompetent.鈥�

Today, approximately 400 LAs are hired each year at 欧美口爆视频 Boulder, serving more than 20,000 students each year. Research shows that students who have experienced a STEM course with LAs are 60% more likely to succeed in subsequent STEM courses. The model has caught on. 

Universities all over the world have realized that the LA model can transform their institutions, building lasting capacity for sustained offerings of high-quality, learner-centered instruction. 

In these settings, students feel included and valued and are comfortable accessing multiple forms of support in and outside of the classroom. The thousands of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder students who have served as LAs and LA mentors have become effective leaders, teachers and team members, prepared for the increasingly diverse and interdisciplinary workforce. 

On Oct. 27, professors from universities around the world will come to 欧美口爆视频 Boulder, as they do each year, to learn about and share research regarding the LA model. 

Otero founded the Learning Assistant Alliance in 2009, and since then, more than 3,000 professors from more than 560 universities and 28 countries have joined. Otero has been invited to Norway, Egypt, Japan and the United Kingdom to provide guidance and support for country-level adoptions of the LA Model. 

Otero is also known for her foundational work with PEER Physics, a high school physics curriculum and teacher professional learning community adopted by high schools from Seattle to New York. 

鈥淲e used to be gullible before this class, but now evidence has our backs,鈥� a PEER Physics student said, while another noted, 鈥淭his course has provided a very safe and helpful learning environment for me. This class is all about working with others and has really helped me learn the material鈥攊t has also lifted my spirits about the science subject in general.鈥� 

A PEER Physics teacher said, 鈥淧EER Physics gives ownership to students who haven鈥檛 had ownership in other science classrooms before. It empowers them to take charge of their own learning rather than just being fed information. I think it challenges their analytical skills.鈥� 

Another teacher said, 鈥淚 think if the PEER Physics teacher community didn鈥檛 exist, I would have left education. This has kept me in, really enhanced my life, and the life of my students.鈥� 

Otero found empowerment and joy in physics when she took her first physics course at the University of New Mexico. 鈥淚 always loved learning,鈥� she says. 鈥淢y dad always taught us that learning is a great privilege, and I committed my life to making positive learning opportunities available for students like me.鈥� 

As a first-generation college student, Otero has first-hand knowledge about how a Hispanic woman can navigate physics and academia and achieve great success through a supportive community like 欧美口爆视频 Boulder. Otero says that she developed leadership skills by working at her parents鈥� grocery store and at the New Mexico State Fair since she was 12. 

Twenty-three years after starting at 欧美口爆视频 Boulder, she continues to work with the Learning Assistant Alliance and PEER Physics to find ways to include, rather than exclude, people from physics. 

Did you enjoy this article?  Want to learn more? View Otero's Ed Talk . 

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