Baylor accepted into world’s largest particle physics research lab

What is the universe made from?

Baylor physics professor Dr. Jay Dittmann says answering that question is “one of the biggest scientific endeavors ever” — and it’s one Baylor physics professors and students will be a part of, as BU was accepted last week into an international experiment working with the world’s most powerful subatomic particle collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland.

Baylor physicists will join scientists from around the world in monitoring and analyzing data from the collider in an effort to answer questions such as “what is dark matter?” and “what is the origin of mass?” It’s not Baylor’s first venture into the world of high-energy physics — both undergraduate and graduate students have worked for years with another collider at Fermilab in Chicago — but Dittmann says the CERN work is the next generation of such studies and “the future of our high-energy physics research program here at Baylor.”

Sic ’em, Baylor physicists!