Graduate Students Working in Underground Lab
“The general properties of neutrinos and the nature of dark matter are currently two of the most important questions in fundamental physics,” said Dongming Mei, Ph.D., associate professor in the department of physics at USD. The students are working alongside Mei on the Large Underground Xenon experiment (LUX), which aims to detect dark matter in the underground lab.
Dana Byram, of Rapid City, South Dakota, is pursuing his Ph.D. at USD while working full time in the SURF lab. He is taking shifts with the LUX experiment, looking for experimental detection of dark matter particles. The project recently finished gathering 300 days of data.
Michelle While, another USD graduate student from Gillette, Wyoming, is mainly working on LUX-Zeplin (LZ) experiments while pursuing her studies at USD. She is involved in the new LZ project, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The LZ project seeks to discover dark matter and has the potential to rule out the most popular theoretical model about the topic.
You May Also Like
Third Academic All-America honor for Duffy
AUSTIN, Texas — South Dakota senior guard Ciara Duffy was one of five Division I women's basketball players selected to the Academic All-America first team selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Duffy earns Academic All-America honors for the third consecutive season.
Perfect Finish Coyotes beat Jacks for Summit crown
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — All five South Dakota starters scored in double-figures and the Coyotes completed perhaps the greatest regular season in Summit League history with a 63-58 win against rival and second-seeded South Dakota State in the tournament championship game Tuesday inside the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center.
