Chung-Ang University (CAU) entered into a strategic R&D collaboration agreement with Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (henceforth “Fermilab”), located Batavia, Illinois, the U.S., on September 20th, 2018 (Thu).
Fermilab was established in 1967 by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to conduct research on particle physics and accelerators, and currently, 1,750 researchers and staff members work for the institution. Fermilab is well-known to have the proton accelerator capable of making the highest-intensity neutrino beam in the world.
Fermilab has led the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE)–an international consortium project launched by the DOE–and conducted research on neutrino since 2015. As of 2018, 1,100 scientists of 180 institutions from 32 countries participate in the research project. With the signing of this cooperative agreement, CAU came to join the project for the first time among Korean universities.
From CAU, President Kim Chang-soo, Kim Won-yong, the executive director of the Office of Research Support as well as the president of Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation (IACF), Prof. Kim Si-yeon of the Department of Physics took part in the signing ceremony. In the meantime, from Fermilab, Director Nigel Lockyer, Deputy Director Steve Brice Neutrino of the Neutrino Division, Chief of Staff Hema Ramamoorthi, and Michael Weis, the manager of the DOE Fermi Site Office attended. On top of this, Ed Blucher and Stefan Soldner-Rembold, the DUNE spokespersons, as well as Prof. Jung Chang-kee of Stony Brook University, joined the ceremony.
The signing ceremony between the two institutions were proceeded in the following order: introduction of both institutions, visit to underground facility for Fermilab's NOVA experiment and Short-Baseline Neutrino (SBN) detectors, and signing of the agreement.
[Director Nigel Lockyer of Fermilab and President Kim Chang-soo of CAU]
[President Kim Chang-soo, introducing CAU to Director Nigel Lockyer]
This agreement enables CAU to join the DUNE project and lay the foundation for producing outstanding research findings, promoting student & faculty exchange, and boosting its reputation on the global stage. In addition, an international symposium will be held in December 2018 as part of an effort to celebrate the 100th anniversary of CAU and commemorate the signing of the agreement.
[President Kim Chang-soo, explaining gayageum, the Korean zither-like string instrument, made by CAU’s school-based enterprise, Ari]
President Kim Chang-soo of CAU said, “It is a great honor for Chung-Ang University to sign a cooperative agreement on joint research with Fermilab for the first time among Korean universities. Our university will spare no effort to ensure that both institutions can deliver excellent research achievements in the field of neutrino, known as the most abundant material particle in the universe. I hope that this agreement lays the cornerstone for further enhancing CAU’s competitiveness on the global stage.”
Kim Won-young who serves as the executive director of the Office of Research Support as well as the president of IACF has greatly contributed to the signing of the agreement and expressed his feelings, saying, “I am pleased that two years of efforts, made by our office, bear the fruit. Chung-Ang University gained an opportunity to participate in the DUNE project, led by Fermilab. Our office will go the extra mile for delivering noble research results in particle physics and advancing relevant industries by establishing a joint research center, implementing collaborative research projects in partnership with prestigious overseas research institutions, and recruiting chaired professors to CAU.”
* Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, often abbreviated as “Fermilab”–situated in Batavia, the U.S., adjacent to Chicago–was founded in 1967 to carry out research on particle physics and accelerators. It was named after Enrico Fermi, known as a pioneering researcher in material physics. Fermilab, under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science (OS), handles international experiments, leading U.S. research institutions. Fermilab participates in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, often referred to as CERN. In addition, the institution focuses on the intensity frontier at home–experiments that use beams containing large numbers of particles–such as neutrino experiments. Benjamin Whisoh Lee, a Korean-born American theoretical physicist, had served as the founding head of the Theoretical Physics Department at Fermilab from 1973.
* Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment(DUNE), a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment, seeks to identify physical properties of neutrinos and ultimately understand the origin of matter. Neutrino is key to exploring an unknown area of physics through the search for signs of proton decay and understanding a supernova explosion mechanism in the Milky Way. Neutrinos with high energy, produced from Fermilab’s proton accelerator, are found at the underground particle detector in South Dakota, installed 1,300 kilometers away from Fermilab. Fermilab’s researchers fill the detector with liquid argon, carry out ultra-low temperature experiments, and analyze the data with the adoption of AI technology. Likewise, the DUNE project is at the forefront of both developing and using state-of-the-art technologies. At present, the DUNE project is joined by 1,100 scientists from 180 research organizations of 32 different countries.
* A neutrino is an elementary particle with a very small mass and interacts only via the weak force. The neutrino is a fermion with half-integer spin. And as its name suggests, it is electrically neutral. Until the 1990s, the neutrino had been considered to be massless; however, with measurement of solar and atmospheric neutrino oscillations, it was revealed that the neutrino did have a mass. As a result of this, Prof. Arthur McDonald of Canada and Prof. Takaaki Kajita of Japan were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.