The nEXO group at Skyline College had the honor of hosting collaborators from the Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) National Accelerator Laboratory on May 17, 2024. Since joining the nEXO Collaboration in 2021, Skyline College’s nEXO group interns have been working with SLAC scientists on particle and nuclear physics experiments during the R&D phase of the nEXO project, thanks to funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.
Sander Breur, Brian Lenardo, Brian Mong, Glenn Richardson, and Miao Yu from SLAC have been working with Skyline nEXO students, Simon Herrmann, Codie Lai, Phone Thant Myo, and Eslin Villalta for many months, designing interesting projects for them and providing invaluable mentorship. The visit started with lunch with a breathtaking view in Building 12, along with Emilie Hein, Marco Wehrfritz, Rita Gulli, and interim Dean of STEM Jing Folsom. They were also joined by the current nEXO students and the students joining the nEXO group this summer: Dasha Baitazarova, Tin Htoo, and Aryanna Mendoza.
The SLAC visitors were then guided to the Fabrication Lab in Building 7, where they learned about the equipment available to the students to complete their projects. The visit ended in the Physics lab with student presentations and interactive and fruitful discussions about future plans.
Both collaborating parties were delighted to collaborate to foster young undergraduate talents from diverse backgrounds to provide advanced research opportunities in Nuclear Physics.
This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (Office of Nuclear Physics), under Award Number DE-SC0024677.
Article by: Emilie Hein and Marco Wehrfritz
Photos credit: Emilie Hein