The last Conference on Science at the Sanford Underground Research
Facility in 2019 brought together researchers working on SURF science from
around the world.
The Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) is
home to a huge range of scientific disciplines, from world-leading physics
research to biology, geology, data analytics, materials science and much more. South
Dakota Mines is hosting the fourth Conference on Science at the Sanford Underground
Research Facility which will cover all aspects of research at SURF.
The conference will take place May 11-13 in the Electrical Engineering and
Physics (EEP) building on campus at Mines.
“SURF has been operating for 15 years as an
international facility dedicated to advancing compelling multidisciplinary
underground scientific research. These are exciting times for the underground
science community, and developments at SURF are front and center on the world
stage,” says Jaret Heise, Ph.D., the science director at SURF. “The Conference
on Science at SURF provides a wonderful opportunity to survey progress on
current and future efforts, and we're thrilled that the conference series is
resuming.”
The conference, generally held every two years but postponed
in 2021 due to COVID, brings together researchers from around the world who are
focusing on the array of science happening in the underground lab. This year about
125 researchers and students are expected to attend.
“The last two years have been very challenging for
everyone and having the opportunity to organize the conference in-person is very
exciting,” says David Martinez Caicedo, Ph.D., assistant professor of Physics and Mines
and a conference organizer. “We will do our best to make the conference a great
space for communication of the latest scientific results of the community doing
underground science research. We are also very happy to know that we will count
with a strong participation of a diverse group of young researchers."
South Dakota Mines faculty and students are involved
in every aspect of SURF, from the massive Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment to the study
of extremophile
bacteria found in the depths of the former mine turned laboratory, to the
multidisciplinary effort to tap geothermal
potential deep underground as a new energy source, to the hunt for dark matter
with the LZ dark matter experimentMajorana Demonstrator experiment and probing the stellar interior with the
CASPAR experiment.
“It is great to see so many researchers coming to
Rapid City. After more than two years of the pandemic we are finally discussing
science again in person,” says Frank Strieder, Ph.D., associate professor
of physics at South Dakota Mines and the leader of the CASPAR Experiment at
SURF.
Media interested in
covering the conference can find interviews with organizers around noon on May 11
or 12 in EEP on the Mines campus.