University of Tasmania, Australia

Australian Institute of Physics (Tasmanian Branch) - Winter Public Lecture Series in Physics in honour of Alexander and Leicester McAulay

Big question, Big facilities: the Discovery of the origin of Mass?

Professor Elisabetta Barberio (University of Melbourne)

AIP Women in Physics Lecturer for 2013

Physics Lecture Theatre 1, Sandy Bay Campus, University of Tasmania

ABSTRACT:

The understanding of our universe, from the largest to the smallest, has progressed significantly in recent decades. Large, complex and expensive facilities have been essential in the pursuit of knowledge of the fundamental structure, constituents and forces in nature; and the demand to make observations, measurements and analyses has driven technological advancement. Specifically, July 4 2012, experiments at the Large Hadron Collider announced the discovery of a new subatomic particle. This breakthrough will be described and discussed in the context of its implications for our quest to understand the origin of mass.

SPEAKER PROFILE:

Professor Elisabetta Barberio, is a member of the Experimental Particle Physics Group at the University of Melbourne. She joined the University of Melbourne in 2004. Previously, she was a staff researcher at CERN, (CH), the European laboratory of Particle Physics. She played a crucial role in data analysis in the OPAL experiment at Large Electron Positron Collider at CERN. Precision measurements made at this collider have confirmed the theory describing the fundamental particle behaviour to an extraordinary degree of precision. She is currently participating in the e ATLAS experiment and her group had an important role in the discovery of the Higgs boson particle at the Large Hadron Collider. This is lecture is a part of this year's Winter Public Lecture Series in Physics. The series started in 2002 and is held in honour of Alexander and Leicester McAulay, two renowned Physics professors, who were inspiring teachers and did significant research at the University of Tasmania during the early years.

ALL WELCOME