A group of leading astroparticle physics researchers
and physics students from across the nation have gathered at South Dakota Mines
for the third annual IceCube EPSCoR
Initiative (IEI) Undergraduate Summer Program sponsored by the National
Science Foundation.
The IceCube Neutrino
Observatory, located at the geographic South Pole, is the world’s largest facility
of its type. It includes a cubic kilometer array of over 5,000 optical sensors that
have been placed up to two kilometers deep in the glacial ice. In a nutshell, the
observatory turns a gigaton of high-purity South Pole ice into an astroparticle
detector.
The program brings together 11 of the top particle
astrophysicists from around the nation and 20 highly motivated college students
from seven EPSCoR jurisdictions who are learning or working with IceCube and assisting
in preparation for IceCube Generation-2 (or Gen2) experiment.
Students are spending seven weeks in June and July delving
into the mysteries at the frontiers of multimessenger astronomy and astroparticle
physics while learning the techniques used to perform analyses of
the huge dataset generated by IceCube. The experiment yields about one terabyte of raw data
per day.
“Thanks to this summer program, this cohort of
physics researchers will be well-positioned to make seminal contributions to
IceCube in the upcoming academic year, and beyond,” says Xinhua Bai, Ph.D., a
professor of physics at Mines and one of the eleven faculty members taking part
in the IEI Undergraduate Summer Program.
For most students in the program, it is their first
time in South Dakota. They will pay a visit to the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) to explore
the incredible research underway in the state. They will also take part in a
social gathering at Mt. Rushmore during the 4th of July holiday
break. “This is a group of talented students with fantastic dreams and huge
potential. During this summer program we want to share our love of physics with
them, and we also want to share opportunities in the beautiful and friendly
Black Hills,” Bai added.
The list of faculty members presenting during the
summer program includes; Dawn Williams, Ph.D., form the University of Alabama; Katherine
Rawlins, Ph.D., from the University of Alaska Anchorage; David Besson, Ph.D.,
from the University of Kansas; Matthias Plum, Ph.D., from South Dakota Mines; Frank
Schroeder, Ph.D., from the University of Delaware; Ilya
Kravchenko, Ph.D., from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; David Seckel,
Ph.D., from the University of Delaware; Marcos Santander, Ph.D., from the University
of Alabama; Spencer Axani, Ph.D., from the University of Delaware; Ali Fazely,
Ph.D., from Southern University and A&M College and Xinhua Bai, Ph.D., from
South Dakota Mines.
“Dr. Matthias Plum and I want to express our
gratitude for all those on campus and around the community who have assisted
with organizing and hosting this summer program,” says Bai. “Mines physics
research scientist Larissa Paul, graduate students Logan Molchany, Amar Thakuri
and Alexis Hanson have been excellent to assist in student training during this
program.
On the Mines campus Lisa Carlson, Stephanie Lindsley, Travis Kowalski, along with our campus Information and Technology Services, our Department of Physics, and others have been instrumental in their support. We also want to thank Deb Wolf, Chad Ronish, and all those at SURF for their help and support of this effort.”
This interview
on South Dakota Public Broadcasting includes two of the leading astroparticle
physicists who are taking part in the summer program.