KU News Release

July 17, 2008
Contact: Alice Bean, abean@ku.edu, or Michael Murray, (785) 864-3949 or (785) 863-0814.

Smashing summer project: KU students working with supercollider scientists

LAWRENCE — Five University of Kansas students and two spring graduates are working this summer in Switzerland with scientists who are preparing to launch a supercollider project that could change fundamental knowledge of the universe.

The KU students are working on projects for the European Center for Nuclear Research in Geneva, which will launch the gigantic supercollider known as Large Hadron Collider in September. When operational, two beams of subatomic particles called hadrons will speed in opposite directions inside a circular 16.5-mile track deep underground.

The supercollider is designed to create conditions that existed in a wisp of time following the “Big Bang” that some say created the universe. The scientists are searching for answers to questions such as “How does energy work?” and “Why did atoms survive the Big Bang?”

Two KU faculty members in physics and astronomy, Alice Bean, professor, and Michael Murray, associate professor, are among more than 1,000 U.S. scientists working on supercollider projects. Bean and Murray each have students working on their research projects in Switzerland during June and July. They are helping to build the Compact Muon Solenoid, which is a detector to track particles exploding from the collisions. Murray returned from Switzerland July 1 and will return to Geneva in September. Bean will return to KU in November.

Bean is a lead researcher with a $2.5 million five-year grant from the National Science Foundation Partnerships for International Research and Education. The grant includes scientists from KU, Kansas State University, the University of Nebraska, the University of Illinois-Chicago and the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. Their work focuses on high-energy physics. The grant supports undergraduate and graduate students from the partner universities to work at the European Center for Nuclear Research each year.

Since May, Bean has been working at the Paul Scherrer Institute located near Zurich with 11 students, including three from KU: Chris Martin, Manhattan junior; Jennifer A. Sibille, Lafayette and Ruston, La., doctoral student; and Corbett Clark Bennett, a spring 2008 graduate from Mission Hills. Two KU research associates in physics and astronomy, Valeria Radicci and Jo Cole, both of Lawrence, also are working at the institute.

Murray is working with heavy ion physics researchers to bring online a new detector designed and built at KU called the Zero Degree Calorimeter. The detector will help physicists monitor collisions of particles in the supercollider. Those collisions will occur about 40 million times per second, Murray noted in explaining the need for a detector that can record data at super speeds. His research is funded with a U.S. Department of Energy grant.

Murray’s group includes four KU students: Alexander J. Krejci, Lawrence senior; Heidi JoAnn LeSage, Plymouth, Minn., sophomore; Laura Stiles, a spring 2008 graduate from Prairie Village; and Jeff Wood, Lawrence doctoral student. The undergraduates, including Stiles, received NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates grants to support their work. Krejci and LeSage also have related Undergraduate Research Awards from KU. Wood received a KU Graduate Research Fellowship for his work at CERN.

The KU students working abroad on supercollider projects this summer are listed below by hometown, major or degree earned and, when available, parents’ names and related information about their research.

DOUGLAS COUNTY
From Lawrence 66044
Alexander J. Krejci, senior in geology and physics and astronomy, son of Jerry and Kelly Krejci; Olathe Northwest High School; research project titled “Proton Beam Calibration and LED Calibration System at CERN Particle Collider in Geneva, Switzerland.”

Jeff Wood, doctoral student in physics; bachelor’s degree from the University of Oklahoma, 2004.

JOHNSON COUNTY
From Mission Hills 66208
Corbett Clark Bennett, spring 2008 graduate with degrees in physics, classics and philosophy, son of Champ and Anne Bennett; The Pembroke Hill School, Kansas City, Mo.; At KU, Bennett was a National Merit Scholar; at CERN he is working on getting the silicon strip tracker commissioned.

From Prairie Village 66208
Laura Stiles, spring 2008 graduate in engineering physics, daughter of Mark and Brenda Stiles; Shawnee Mission East High School; Stiles received honorable mentions in two national competitions while at KU: the 2006 and 2007 Goldwater scholarships competition and the 2008 National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship competition.

RILEY COUNTY
From Manhattan 66502
Chris Martin, junior in mathematics and physics, son of Randal and Susan Martin; Manhattan High School; Martin will be staying in Switzerland this fall through KU’s study abroad program to take classes at Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, a technical and scientific research university.

LOUISIANA
From Lafayette 70508 and Ruston 71272
Jennifer A. Sibille, doctoral student in physics; bachelor’s degree from Louisiana Tech University, Ruston.

MINNESOTA
From Plymouth 55446
Heidi JoAnn LeSage, sophomore in chemistry, daughter of Michael LeSage and Kim Nesbitt; Wayzata High School; research project titled “Measuring the Brightness of the Large Hadron Collider.”

-30-

The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. University Relations is the central public relations office for KU's Lawrence campus.

kunews@ku.edu | (785) 864-3256 | 1314 Jayhawk Blvd., Lawrence, KS 66045