Students spent 10 weeks at the CERN lab in Switzerland, and that's where they celebrated the discovery of, not just of a lifetime, but of a generation.
It was the discovery of a lifetime, but theorized almost 50 years ago.
The Higgs-Boson particle: It explains why atoms have weight, and how the universe works.
The discovery is still fresh in the minds of Fresno State professor Dr. Yongsheng Gao and several of his post-doctorate students.
Arya Afshari, Physics Major: "I worked on programming, my colleagues worked on experimental aspects of the detectors."
This group of physics majors were among the 3,000 physicists, from 200 institutions, spanning 38 countries that contributed to the discovery.
Count the Bulldogs among Harvard, and Yale, as participating schools.
Particle physics research at Fresno State is made is possible by $1.6 million in NSF funding.
Dr. Yongsheng Gao, Physics Professor: "If you look at other recipients of such grants, they are all coming from top research universities like Princeton, Yale, all these places."
The discovery of this so-called "God Particle" was made at the CERN labs in Switzerland, home to the world's largest atom smasher.
Simon Gonzalez, Physics Major: "They accelerate particles close to nearly the speed of light, and they just collide and they spew out all these other fundamental particles that make up the universe."
As far as any religious controversy, with regard to creation, well, Dr. Gao and his students are trying to stay away from that...
Well, as much as possible.
Navid Rad, Physics Major: "When I was explaining my work at CERN to my grandma, she just gave me this look and told me, you shouldn't be messing with God's plan."
13 Fresno State students have worked on projects at CERN since 2008, and you can bet more will be participating in future research.
Physics professor Dr. Yongsheng Gao is now working on getting more CSU campuses involved in particle physics research.
TXT 24
Twitter
Facebook