The “God Particle”: a story of Big Science, Big Data, and Human Ingenuity
Prof. Michael Hildreth
Department of Physics & Astronomy
University of Notre Dame
Many science projects today require huge teams of scientists to uncover how the universe works. Examples of these “Big Science” projects include the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of the Higgs Boson in 2012 at CERN, the world’s largest particle accelerator, near Geneva, Switzerland.
Prof. Michael Hildreth will describe how Notre Dame scientists were active and important participants in the discovery of the Higgs Boson. He will describe the sociological challenges of working on such a global “Big Science” project, and will discuss the technical capabilities and partnerships required to support this work. Finally, he will explore the future of particle physics research and how Notre Dame will continue to support these efforts.