Research

November 20, 2014 at 8:05 pm

Two Studies in Europe: Testing LED Calibration of the Forward Tagger for CLAS12 in Genoa, Italy and Helping to Test and Document a New Style of Detector at CEA/Saclay, France

Natalie Klco
B.S. HTC Physics and B.A. HTC Music, Class of 2015

2014 KCLO_Natalie Genoa internshipNatalie Klco spent the summer in Italy and France participating in two projects under the direction of Dr. Kenneth Hicks, Professor of Physics at Ohio University.

Hicks is a member of a team of researchers conducting a tracking detector experiment at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) in Newport News, VA. He is the principle investigator on a grant from the National Science Foundation to purchase the tracking detector from Saclay Nuclear Research Centre (CEA/Saclay) located in France. At CEA/Saclay, French researchers have developed new technology to do particle tracking at high rates.

“Natalie began her summer in Genoa, Italy, where she worked on the Forward Tagger project, supervised by Drs. Raffaella DeVita and Marco Battaglieri, researchers at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics Section of Genoa,” Hicks explained. “The Forward Tagger project involves designing hardware to detect electron scattering inside the CLAS12 spectrometer, a detector under construction for the Jefferson Lab. Once the Forward Tagger is installed in the CLAS12 detector at Jefferson Lab, it will be possible to investigate the kinds of particles that can be formed from quarks when high-energy electrons are scattered from protons and neutrons.”

“After spending a month in Italy,” Hicks continued, “Natalie traveled to CEA/Saclay, to participate in a second month-long project, under the supervision of Drs. Franck Sabatie and Sebastien Procureur. She assisted in the testing and documentation of a new style of detector that will track particles produced in CLAS12 particle physics experiment also at Jefferson Lab. Natalie studied the calibration and temperature stability of an LED array that will be used to monitor light output of high-energy electron detectors. She also learned throughout the summer how radiation detectors are built and tested.”

Read more about Natalie’s internship and her perspective.

Natalie Klco – Intern with Dr. Kenneth Hicks – senior at Ohio University – Honors Tutorial College – physics and music major

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