College of DuPage astronomy professor Joe DalSanto to compete at Fermilab's Physics Slam

College of DuPage Associate Professor of Astronomy Joe DalSanto has been selected as one of five participants to compete at Fermilab's eighth Physics Slam competition, one of the highlights of Fermilab's Art and Lecture Series, on Friday, Nov. 15.

During the competition, each contestant will have 10 minutes to present physics topics in a way that is accessible, understandable and entertaining.

DalSanto hopes to inspire attendees at Fermilab's Ramsey Auditorium to think about the scale of the universe in a new way with his presentation, "How Big IS the Universe?"

"I want to give everyone a feeling for the immensity of our universe," DalSanto said. "I want my talk to have somewhat of an emotional effect. I want it to feel almost overwhelming because, in reality, the extent of our universe is overwhelming."

The sold-out event, hosted by COD speech professor Chris Miller, will include presentations from four of Fermilab's experts: archivist and historian Valerie Higgins, associate scientist Pedro Machado, project scientist Eduard Pozdeyev, and research associate Fernanda Psihas.

DalSanto described the opportunity to participate in the Physics Slam as an honor and said that it would be gratifying if he were to win.

"I put a lot of time, thought and effort into all of my presentations," he said. "It would feel good to say, 'All my hard work was worth it,' but I'll be happy with simply walking away knowing that I did a great job."

Fermilab is America's premier national laboratory for particle physics and accelerator research. A U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory, Fermilab is located in Batavia, and operated under contract by the Fermi Research Alliance LLC, a joint partnership between the University of Chicago and the Universities Research Association Inc.

Learn more about Fermilab's Physics Slam at events.fnal.gov/arts-lecture-series/.

Learn more about the Astronomy program at College of DuPage at www.cod.edu/academics/programs/earth_science/.