Our group's research is
currently centered on the CMS
experiment and the RD51 micropattern gas detector collaboration at CERN
(Geneva, Switzerland) and on Tracking R&D for a future Electron-Ion Collider. We have contributed to the PHENIX experiment at the Brookhaven
National Laboratory (Upton, New York) in the past. In our labs on the Florida Tech campus we do basic
particle detector R&D on Gas Electron Multipliers (GEM) and run extensive GEANT4 simulations for a Muon Tomography project. We operate a state-of-the-art Linux cluster with 180 CPU cores and 100TB of mass storage as a Tier-3 Grid cluster on the Open Science Grid from our CMS T3 Center. Our group is participating in the national Quarknet
education and outreach program by offering technical expertise to local physics high school teachers and students for
a Cosmic Ray Muon Project.
Look around this site to learn more about our research ! (use the buttons on the left to navigate the site)
CMS experiment: Installation of Alignment Sensors for the Muon Endcap Chambers.
Liz Esposito wins "Best of Show" in Physics for her poster on our infrared GEM foil stretching technique at the annual FIT-Northrop Grumman Science & Engineering showcase. (April '12)
Our CMS effort receives a $360,000 funding continuation from DOE's Office of Science (HEP) for 2012-14. Dr. Hohlmann becomes P.I. of the DOE HEP core grant at FIT (March '12).
Physics majors Xenia Fave and Ben Locke both receive the Faculty Honor Award for graduating with a perfect 4.0 at the same Fall '11 commencement exercise. Way to go, guys!!!
Left to Right: Ben, Dr.H., Xenia
Award Season in HEP Lab A: At the Spring 2011 Honors Convocation a number of our students are honored for their academic achievements (April '11):
Xenia Fave, Academic Award for Excellence for Women from the American Association of University Women and Florida Tech Distinguished Student Scholar
Johanna-Laina Fischer, Outstanding Junior P/SS
Ben Locke, Florida Tech Distinguished Student Scholar
Will Bittner is accepted into the highly competitive IBM Extreme Blue Internship program (May '11). He subsequently accepts full time employment at the IBM Linux Technology Center in Austin, TX.
Bryant Benson successfully defends his M.S. thesis (May '11).
Marcus Hohlmann, Samir Guragain (Ph.D '10), Himali Kalakhety CMS analysis research featured in Fermilab Today (March '11)
Alumna Georgia Karagiorgi (B.S.'04) is quoted in a Physics Today article on results of her Ph.D. thesis at MIT on antineutrino oscillations measured with MiniBooNE at FNAL.
DOE-Science (HEP) funds an upgrade of our Tier-3 Grid cluster operations with $30k from the 2009/10 American Recovery & Reinvestment Act, aka the "Stimulus" bill (Sep '10).
Two-part Campus Research Report article appears in FIT Crimson: Part 1 on Muon Tomography; Part 2 on CMS (Sep '10).
Samir Guragain successfully defends his Ph.D. thesis (Sep '10).
Marcus Hohlmann talks with Courtland Lewis about the LHC on "American Variety," a radio show broadcast on three NPR stations in central Florida. Air dates: Sunday 5/9 & 9/5, 2010 on WFIT-89.5 FM (Melbourne) and Wednesday 5/12 & 9/8, 2010 on WMFE-90.7 FM (Orlando) and WQCS-88.9 FM (Ft.Pierce).
Listen to the webcast (big - 25 MB!) if you missed it on the radio.
WIRED.com, the online version of WIRED magazine, covers recent progress with our Muon tomography project with an article in their Wired Science Blog (July 1, 2010). The article also got picked up by the Global Security Newswire a day later.
Amilkar Quintero successfully defends his M.S. thesis (June'10).
Fourth-year funding from DHS for our Muon Tomography project puts total funding for this project at $1,255,000 (May '10).
Muon Tomography data taken with GEM detectors at CERN establishes first proof-of-concept of our method (Apr '10).
Our CMS effort receives a funding continuation in the amount of $160,000 from DOE's Office of Science (HEP) for 2009-11.
