The Large Hadron Collider has just restarted at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland, and the members of the ATLAS experiments are getting ready for the deluge of data. On June 24-26, the University of Illinois hosted the 2015 US ATLAS Meeting, an intensive four day workshop that brought together about 100 members of the ATLAS experiment from US institutions across the country.
Written by Verena I. Martinez Outschoorn
The Large Hadron Collider has just restarted at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland, and the members of the ATLAS experiments are getting ready for the deluge of data. On June 24-26, the University of Illinois hosted the 2015 US ATLAS Meeting, an intensive four day workshop that brought together about 100 members of the ATLAS experiment from US institutions across the country.
A group photo of conference attendees
The workshop this year focused on three main areas. The first goal was to prepare a new group of scientists to study the data by providing pedagogical introductions to the main areas of detector performance and reconstruction, and by reviewing some of the recent improvements to the detector and the software used to process the data. The second aim was to discuss the plans in the US to upgrade the detector. Finally, the third goal was to review ATLAS physics results and discuss exciting prospects for measurements and searches in this upcoming run of the LHC.
The workshop was packed with activities! Participants had the opportunity to present the results of their work and participate in many discussions on a wide range of topics. A career panel was setup with former high energy physics experimentalists who have pursued career paths outside of academia. The panel provided advice to members of ATLAS, as well as graduate students from the Physics department, on how to transition from academia to industry and be successful.
The last evening of the workshop included a banquet dinner and an awards ceremony to outstanding contributors to ATLAS. The event ended with a very emotional speech by Howard Gordon, a senior scientist at Brookhaven National Lab, who is a PhD from the University of Illinois and was awarded the lifetime achievement award this year. Dr. Gordon, who has a huge number of accomplishments and has been a key figure in US ATLAS, recalled his experience as a graduate student and fondly remembers meeting his wife on campus.
We look forward to welcoming back the LHC community to Urbana-Champaign in the near future!
For more pictures and information about the workshop, please see the website