ESP Biography

The fundamental particles and interactions that account for all known phenomena can be described by a beautiful and intuitive set of drawings called Feynman Diagrams. In this course, you will learn about the known matter (quarks, leptons) and forces (gravity, electromagnetism, weak, and strong) that describe everything ever observed in our universe through the use of these simple diagrams! This session will be very interactive and you will spend lots of time drawing Feynman diagrams yourself and in small groups!

It's an exciting time for particle physics! Particle collider experiments are about to unravel mysteries that have teased us for forty years, so now is the perfect time for you to learn a thing or two! Although the field has a reputation for complexity, much of particle physics can be described in beautifully simple and intuitive ways (ever heard of a Feynman diagram? What about billiards?). The overall goal of the course is to use this picture to explain to you why we spent 9 billion dollars looking for something called the "Higgs Boson." On the way, we'll answer some other important questions like: + What is a (fundamental) particle? + What kinds of particles are there? + Why is the universe filled with particles? + How do we 'see' particles?

You're probably still preparing for college applications, but it's never too soon to start thinking about the next step! If you're interested in science or just want to be called "doctor" some day, then graduate studies might be for you! We'll discuss many things, including: -what is "grad school" -preparing for grad school as an undergraduate -grad school admissions -getting paid to go to school! -life and work as a graduate student -career prospects after grad school -potential drawbacks to grad school and other career options in science and engineering The format will be an interactive lecture/discussion. There will be time for you to ask any specific questions you have. Disclaimer: I'm a graduate student getting paid to study particle physics, and I love it!

For many people, scientific curiosity includes a desire to reach and exceed the limits of human understanding of our universe. What are those limits? How can you reach them? How can you participate in expanding them? This course has two roughly equal focuses which will be intertwined in the lecture and discussion. The first is understanding what are today’s frontiers in physics - what are the biggest, smallest, quickest, slowest, heaviest, brightest, darkest, coldest, hottest, simplest, and most complex objects and processes under study today? What types of questions do we ask and experiments do we perform to understand these phenomena? The second focus is on identifying the steps you can take from today in highschool through college, graduate school, and beyond to reach and contribute to expanding the frontiers of science. The course material will be relevant to anyone excited by science or the idea of a research career in the sciences!