High Energy Physics as a Career

1. High Energy Physics as a Career • I am a postdoctoral fellow in High Energy Physics at Fermilab • I am originally from Minsk, Belarus. • I got my B.A. in physics from Kenyon College, a small liberal arts school in central Ohio • In August 2001, I got my Ph. D. in high energy physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara • I came to Fermilab in September 2001. Natalia Kuznetsova Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Natalia Kuznetsova Fermilab

2. What do I do? • I am a member of CDF collaboration • CDF = Collider Detector at Fermilab Asia Total: 11 countries 55 institutions 525 physicists Natalia Kuznetsova Fermilab

3. CDF Detector • We use the CDF detector to observe the results of very high energy proton-antiproton collisions • Because E = mc2, the higher the energy of your colliding particles, the more "stuff" comes out of the collision. Natalia Kuznetsova Fermilab

4. What's inside a detector? • Different sub-detectors in a single particle detector are used for detecting and analyzing different types of particles Natalia Kuznetsova Fermilab

5. Results of proton-antiproton collision Natalia Kuznetsova Fermilab

6. What's a typical day like? • It's hard to describe a typical day -- what you get to do varies greatly, and there is a great deal of freedom to do whatever you want. • Typically, you are involved in three things: • Maintaining some particular subsystem of the detector (hardware) • Writing code for analyzing the data (software) • And you get to learn LOTS of different computer languages! • Actually performing data analysis -- coming up with new ideas, etc.. • Most people in HEP work long hours, but they do so by choice Natalia Kuznetsova Fermilab

7. Some things you might do on a typical day… Taking care of electronics… Taking detector shifts… Writing software… Natalia Kuznetsova Fermilab

8. What is it like? • Because our experiments are so huge, it takes a lot of people to get things going • So you get to interact with lots of people -- physicists and engineers • This has both good and bad sides… Future ATLAS Collaboration at CERN: nearly 2,000 people! Natalia Kuznetsova Fermilab

9. Careers and salaries • If you would like to stay in academia and do basic research, the typical career progression is: • grad student -> postdoc -> assistant professor -> full professor • The level of responsibility and the amount of competition increases at each step Occupation Salary range ~20k (Doctoral) Grad. student 35-50k Postdoc/Assistant professor 90k ->… Full professor Natalia Kuznetsova Fermilab

10. Qualifications • To be a high energy physicist doing basic research, you need: • Academically: a Ph.D. • Personally: • LOVE PHYSICS!! You are in this for the love and fun of the science, not money. • Be self-motivating, capable of learning new things on your ownr and fast, capable of collaborating with lots of other people, somewhat competitive, always curious… Natalia Kuznetsova Fermilab

11. What else can you do with HEP training? • Because you get to do so many different things, you are well-prepared for non-academic careers • For example, your background in computer programming or designing electronics can be very valuable while applying for industry jobs • But the more important thing is, most people who have received HEP training can THINK. Natalia Kuznetsova Fermilab

12. What former UCSB grad students are up to Year Student Current (or last known) Position 1999 D. Lange postdoc, Livermore 1999 A. Sonnenschein postdoc, Princeton 1998 T. Nelson postdoc, Fermilab 1996 A. Ryd Fairchild Fellow, Caltech 1996 C. Qiao Project Leader, Engelhard Sensor Technologies, Goleta 1995 M. Gray Wall Street 1994 D. Borden Wall Street 1994 D. Sperka computer consultant, Madison 1993 J. Duboscq research physicist, Ohio St. U. 1993 J. Huber research physicist, LBNL (medical imaging) 1992 D. Schmidt staff, LANL (medical imaging) 1990 R. Stephens assistant professor, U.T. Arlington 1990 D. Grumm AXAF project, Smithsonian Astrophysical Laboratory 1988 T. Barker associate professor, U. Colorado 1988 T. Browder associate professor, U. Hawaii Natalia Kuznetsova Fermilab

13. What can you do to become a HEP physicist? • Apply to college with a good physics program. • Participate in a summer research program for undergraduates • Come to Fermilab for a field trip • Send me an e-mail with questions (nataliak@fnal.gov) Natalia Kuznetsova Fermilab

14. SLAC: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center • SLAC is located near the beautiful Stanford University campus, at Menlo Park in California (20 min. to the ocean). • The research performed at SLAC has been recognized withthree Nobel Prizes in physics! • http://www.slac.stanford.edu is the first U.S. Web site! Natalia Kuznetsova Fermilab

15. SLAC site Natalia Kuznetsova Fermilab

16. The BaBar detector BaBar looks at much lower Energy collisions than CDF Natalia Kuznetsova Fermilab

17. The detector for BaBar I helped build • Many particles decay very close to where they were produced. • That’s why at the heart of many detectors is a device needed for finding just where this happened. The vertex point The silicon vertex detector used in the BaBar experiment at SLAC Natalia Kuznetsova Fermilab

18. A typical BaBar event Natalia Kuznetsova Fermilab