MELBOURNE, FLA.—The next presentation of Florida Institute of Technology’s Astronomy and Astrophysics Lecture Series, “Closing in on Elusive Higgs and Understanding the Origin of Mass,” will be given by Marc Baarmand, professor, Florida Tech Department of Physics and Space Sciences. The free lecture will be Aug. 24 from 8 to 9 p.m. in the F.W. Olin Engineering Complex, Room EC118, on campus. There will be a rooftop public star viewing following the presentation if weather permits.
All matter particles are assumed to acquire their mass through interaction with the Higgs field that permeates space. “A new subatomic particle recently discovered at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, is consistent with the long-sought “God Particle,” the Higgs boson, which is the quantum of the Higgs field. A possible resolution to the age-old mystery of the origin of mass may finally be at hand,” said Baarmand. The LHC is the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator.
Baarmand is an internationally known expert in high-energy particle physics. When he came to Florida Tech in 2000, he brought with him an experimental particle physics program based on research with the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at CERN. Baarmand is a charter member of the CMS experiment and serves as Florida Tech representative on its collaboration board. His research is supported through several grants from the U.S. Department of Energy.
The F.W. Olin Engineering Complex is located on West University Boulevard. For more information, call (321) 674-7207or visit www.fit.edu/aapls.