In a laboratory deep below the Swiss-French border, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator smashes protons together at nearly the speed of light. A piece of Oklahoma State University sits at the heart of the action. “Space is infinite, but we’re dealing with millimeters” is how one OSU researcher described their work on components for CERN’s ATLAS detector, but even that understates the precision involved. The copper traces they design are 75 micrometers wide: about the same thickness as a piece of paper. For 20 years, faculty and students from OSU’s College of Arts and Sciences have contributed to ATLAS, a major particle physics experiment on the Large Hadron Collider at the Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (European Organization for Nuclear Research). A Toroidal LHC Apparatus (ATLAS) is one of the largest detectors of its kind. It captures data from highenergy particle collisions and was instrumental in the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson, which is a particle that helps explain why other particles have mass. ATLAS is now undergoing an upgrade, and OSU researchers are playing a role in developing components for installation during the next maintenance period. “Without what we’re doing at OSU, it will not be done,” said Dr. Evan Van de Wall, an OSU assistant research engineer. “The current technology that’s in there is too irradiated to continue to work. Without OSU’s contribution, the future of high energy physics doesn’t happen.” The OSU laboratory responsible for this work was established two decades ago by Dr. Flera Rizatdinova, the current head of the physics department. What began as a small operation has grown into a research group with three professors, five engineers, multiple graduate and undergraduate students and two postdoctoral fellows. “It’s a melting pot of many disciplines,” said Steven Welch, a senior research engineer who leads the lab. The team includes students and professionals from physics, computer science, electrical engineering, computer engineering, mathematics, material science and more. Dr. Joseph Haley, professor in the Department of Physics, said having students working on the project is paramount to their career progress. “WITHOUT OSU’S CONTRIBUTION, THE FUTURE OF HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS DOESN’T HAPPEN” Dr. Evan Van de Wall OSU assistant research engineer OSU COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 31
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