Fermilab lecture to discuss little-known neutrinos
Fermilab Lecture Series presents "Extreme Beams for Mysterious Particles" by Fermilab scientist Regina Rameika at 8 p.m. Friday, April 23 in Wilson Hall, off Pine Street in Batavia.
Neutrinos are among the most abundant particles in the universe. The sun is a neutrino factory, and trillions of neutrinos cross our bodies every second. Yet we know very little about these particles and the role they have played in the evolution of the universe. Are they the reason we exist? New particle accelerators that produce high-intensity neutrino beams and particle detectors the size of Fermilab's Wilson Hall will allow us to unravel the neutrinos' mysteries.
Rameika is a lead scientist in the Fermilab neutrino program and worked on the first observation of tau neutrinos at Fermilab. She has been a staff scientist at Fermilab since 1982. In the early part of her career, she lead experimental programs to measure hyperon magnetic moments. Since 1993, she has concentrated on measuring properties of neutrinos. In 2002, she was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society for her work on the experiment to make the first direct observation of tau neutrino interactions. She has been a leader in the development of the Fermilab neutrino oscillation program, including the MINOS long baseline experiment. The MINOS detector located in northern Minnesota detects neutrinos produced by the Fermilab accelerator, 450 miles to the south. She is currently one of the scientists leading the efforts to build the next generation oscillation experiment which could be located at the proposed Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory, in the Homestake Gold Mine in Lead, S.D. She received her Ph.D. in physics from Rutgers University.
Admission to "Extreme Beams" is $7. Tickets are nonrefundable. For further information or telephone reservations, call (630) 840-ARTS (2787) weekdays between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Phone reservations are held for five working days, but will be released for sale if not paid for within that time. On the evening of the event, the box office opens at 7 p.m. and will-call tickets can be picked up, or available tickets purchased, at that time. At this time both the Pine Street entrance (from Kirk Road in Batavia) and the Batavia Road entrance (west of Route 59 in Warrenville) are open.