Indiana University Department of Physics

04/16/2025

IU physicists among winners of prestigious Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

Scientists from Indiana University are among the thousands of researchers worldwide honored with the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, awarded to the ATLAS Collaboration at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) alongside its sister experiments ALICE, CMS and LHCb.



ATLAS is one of the largest and most complex scientific instruments ever built. As a general-purpose particle detector measuring over 40 metres in length and around 25 metres in height, it was designed to investigate the fundamental building blocks of matter and the forces governing our universe. Its cutting-edge systems track particles produced in particle collisions at unprecedented energies, enabling discoveries like the Higgs boson and searches for new physics beyond the Standard Model.



The Breakthrough Prize specifically highlights the ATLAS Collaboration’s significant contributions to particle physics, including detailed measurements of Higgs boson properties, studies of rare processes and matter-antimatter asymmetry, and the exploration of nature under the most extreme conditions.



“The Breakthrough Prize is a testament to the dedication and ingenuity of the ATLAS Collaboration and our colleagues across the LHC experiments,” said ATLAS Spokesperson Stephane Willocq. "This prize recognises the collective vision and monumental effort of thousands of ATLAS collaborators worldwide.”



“I am extremely proud to see the extraordinary accomplishments of the LHC collaborations honoured with this prestigious Prize,” said Fabiola Gianotti, Director-General of CERN. “It is a beautiful recognition of the collective efforts, dedication, competence and hard work of thousands of people from all over the world who contribute daily to pushing the boundaries of human knowledge.”



IU has been at the forefront of ATLAS research from its outset, contributing to:

Construction and operation of the Transition Radiation Tracker, critical for identifying charged particles and measuring their momenta
Development of the jet energy scale corrections and uncertainties, enabling measurements of the Higgs Boson as well as processes that test the Higgs mechanism, such as Vector Boson Scattering
Leadership in Trigger and Data Acquisition, which shapes and governs the copious amounts of data that are used for ATLAS measurements and searches for physics signatures beyond the Standard Model

"The successes of Run 2 showcase the ingenuity of the ATLAS Collaboration — not only in collecting data with a detector of outstanding precision, but also in our relentless drive to improve our understanding of it," said Andreas Hoecker, former ATLAS Spokesperson.



While the ATLAS Collaboration celebrates the recognition of the Breakthrough Prize, its focus remains firmly on the future. The third operation period of the LHC is currently underway and preparations for the High-Luminosity LHC upgrade are advancing rapidly. Indiana University's team of 18 physicists and engineers, led by P*s Harold Evans, Sabine Lammers, Chris Meyer and Rick van Kooten, is deeply involved in preparing ATLAS for its next chapter. They are leading the development of the inner tracker data acquisition and the calorimeter trigger for the High-Luminosity LHC, which will increase collision rates tenfold when it begins operation in 2030.



“We are now preparing the ATLAS detectors of the future — designed to harness these unprecedented data and further push our understanding of the universe’s fundamental building blocks,” concludes Willocq.

General links:

ATLAS Official Website
https://atlas.cern/?_gl=1*1tmlhv0*_ga*MTg1MzQ3MDY2NC4xNzI5NjEwMjE3*_ga_61CH0D2DQW*MTc0NDgyODM2OC42My4xLjE3NDQ4Mjg1NDIuMjAuMC4w

CERN Official Website
https://home.cern/?_gl=1*1tmlhv0*_ga*MTg1MzQ3MDY2NC4xNzI5NjEwMjE3*_ga_61CH0D2DQW*MTc0NDgyODM2OC42My4xLjE3NDQ4Mjg1NDIuMjAuMC4w

HL-LHC Official Website
https://home.cern/science/accelerators/high-luminosity-lhc?_gl=1*1tmlhv0*_ga*MTg1MzQ3MDY2NC4xNzI5NjEwMjE3*_ga_61CH0D2DQW*MTc0NDgyODM2OC42My4xLjE3NDQ4Mjg1NDIuMjAuMC4w

04/16/2025

Prof. Chen-Ting Liao selected as inaugural Faculty Innovation Ambassador of IU

The Faculty Innovation Ambassadors Program, led by the IU Innovation and Commercialization Office, will support researchers as they develop their research and guide them in understanding translational activities related to intellectual property and commercial development.

The ambassadors will receive training through workshop intensives and will gain an understanding of how basic science and technology are developed into commercial products and innovations. They will be a direct resource to their colleagues in navigating translational activities related to intellectual property and commercialization.

Ambassador chosen from IU Physics:

Chen-Ting Liao, an associate professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington. Liao aims to develop new quantum sensing and imaging techniques for probing matter for semiconductor and quantum materials.


See Bri Heron's full coverage of the initiative and its list of ambassadors:

https://today.iu.edu/live/news/43845-first-cohort-of-faculty-innovation-ambassadors?_gl=1*nxl226*_ga*MTg1MzQ3MDY2NC4xNzI5NjEwMjE3*_ga_61CH0D2DQW*MTc0NDgyODM2OC42My4xLjE3NDQ4MjgzNzcuNTEuMC4w

For information about the Faculty Innovation Ambassador (FIA) program:

https://research.iu.edu/innovation-commercialization/iu-innovators/faculty-ambassador-program.html?_gl=1*nxl226*_ga*MTg1MzQ3MDY2NC4xNzI5NjEwMjE3*_ga_61CH0D2DQW*MTc0NDgyODM2OC42My4xLjE3NDQ4MjgzNzcuNTEuMC4w

04/11/2025

Congratulations to undergraduate student Owen Leonard, who is receiving a Goldwater Scholarship for 2025-26! Owen is a junior studying both astronomy and physics and working with Prof. Raymond Co to study axions, subatomic particles as dark matter candidate. Leonard also serves as President of the Physics Club.

Owen explains that axions are currently one of the most popular candidates to explain dark matter. He notes specifically that the QCD axion also solves the standard model's charge/parity problem for the strong force between baryons. He is conducting the first lattice simulations on some of the more likely QCD axion models. These simulations are crucial for generating accurate dark matter predictions for these models. The nonlinear dynamics at play in particle production can lead to dark matter abundances that can significantly diverge from analytical approximations.

Goldwater Scholarships are among the oldest and most prestigious scholarships in the natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering in the US, awarded to students with the potential for significant future contribution to research in their fields.

10/18/2021

Congratulations to Rebecca Barsotti, one of 65 graduate students nationwide to receive a fellowship through the Department of Energy's Office of Science Graduate Student Research Fellowship Program.

Rebecca was one of 65 graduate students nationwide to receive a fellowship through the Department of Energy's Office of Science Graduate Student Research Fellowship Program

07/12/2021

Check out what the IU Physics Richerme Lab has been up to!

Recent work by researchers in the Richerme lab at Indiana University demonstrates a new platform for quantum simulation-- two-dimensional (2D) ion crystals in a radio-frequency (rf) trap.

05/25/2021

We're keeping busy this summer! IU Professor, Radovan Dermisek, with students Keith Hermanek and Navin McGinnis, show that muon g-2 measurements can be explained by a much heavier new lepton in a recent publication. Read more about it:

PLACEHOLDER: This is a standard page.

04/22/2021

Congrats to IU Grad Student Marvin Jones who was recently highlighted in a NASA article.

IU Grad Student Marvin Jones' highlighted in NASA story.

04/05/2021

Theoretical physicists at Indiana University and Illinois State University may have found a new way stars can explode—with snowflakes.

PLACEHOLDER: This is a standard page.