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Andrei Gritsan

Outreach activities

We communicate our research results to the public through outreach activities. We develop these activities through the QuarkNet program, annual Johns Hopkins Physics Fair, Science Festivals, and collaboration with the Maryland Science Center, as well as through hands-on demonstrations of elementary particles on the university site. There are exciting opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students to work in collaboration with experts to create new exhibits to communicate Particle Physics to the public. We also invite teachers and students from schools in Baltimore area to participate in these activities. Contact Prof. Gritsan and other faculty members for further information.

Read an article " Hadron collisions reach out to people in Washington" in CMS Times.


The Science and Engineering Festival

We have developed an exhibit devoted to the Large Hadron Collider which was shown in Washington DC during the Science and Engineering Festivals in October 2010, April 2012, April 2014, April 2016, and April 2018. We were preparing for the next Festivals in 2020 and 2022, but it has been postponed due to COVID-19. This exhibit highlights the particle physics and the LHC results in particular. Graduate and undergraduate students work with Prof. Gritsan on exhibit development. Read more in the CMS Times article and check these slides. We invite student volunteers to help with development and/or presentation of the exhibit, contact Prof. Gritsan for further information.


Johns Hopkins Physics Fair

The Johns Hopkins Physics Fair attracts several hundred visitors from Baltimore area each Spring. We provide continuous physics demonstrations, prepare science exhibits (see more on the Science Festival exhibit below) and conduct competitions for local high school students. This became a popular event on JHU campus and we invite everybody to participate in the next Physics Fair in the Spring.


QuarkNet

The Johns Hopkins University is hosting a QuarkNet center, where the high school teachers are involved in summer research in particle physics. Here are examples of the lectures given (usually in the morning) during the week courses in July-August of the past several years:
The 5th Force (2023)
Quantum Physics (2022)
Understanding the emptiness: the Higgs field and beyond (2021)
A Virtual Trip to ICHEP-2020: the Science Festival and the Higgs Boson (2020)
Possible Future Collider Experiments in Particle Physics (2019)
Connecting the Standard Models of Particle Physics and Cosmology (2018)
Study of the Higgs Field (2017)
Hunting for elusive particles at LHC: Start of Run II (2016)
Matter in Space and Time: What Do We Know? (2015)
What is the Higgs Boson and why do some call it the 'God Particle' (2014)
Science of the Nuclear Energy (2013)
A Discovery in the Hunt for the Elusive Higgs Boson (2012)
Status of LHC and the Higgs search (2011)
Space-time (2010)
The Higgs Particle, or the Origin of Mass (2009)
What If the Particle World Were Different? (2008)
The Uncertainty Principle and the Quarks (2007)
Matter and Anti-Matter: What is the Matter with Them? (2006)

We also offer hands-on experience with the following table-top experiments related to particles physics. One afternoon is usually enough to perform an experiment (sometimes data could be collected overnight) and up to five experiments could be performed in one week:
1. Muon lifetime
2. Photo-electric effect
3. Pulsed NMR
4. Franck-Hertz experiment
5. Nuclear spectroscopy
6. Rutherford scattering
7. Brownian motion
8. Hall effect


Particle Physics Demonstrations

We have a hands-on demonstration of elementary particles in the Cloud Chamber. We also have an illustration with an array of scintillator counters which would register cosmic rays and would be integrated in the US-wide array of cosmic counters located in the high schools.