- March 6, 2024, 3:30 pm US/Central
- George Gollin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Chris Stoughton
- Video
During five decades in HEP, I have seen
- remarkable discoveries: three generations, Higgs, support for inflationary cosmology…;
- ideas that were so very, very compelling but were wrong (SU(5) ⟹ proton decay);
- a necessary evolution in how we work: larger collaborations and devices, longer time scales;
- growing preferences for the crippling, pyrrhic victories of turf protection and electoral success.
Late in a career, aware of an approaching horizon, it can become time to walk away from all this. But towards what?
Things I learned from hammering diploma mill criminals:
- I can make a difference;
- I should engage in a way that brings my professional skills into play;
- I should stay focused on the desired outcome.
I’ll describe what is working for me in creating UIUC’s new Master’s in Instrumentation and Applied Physics. Here is what I/we do:
- Identify unaddressed problems in medicine, transportation, performing arts,…
- Teach students to design, build and program an embedded system of devices to address the problem.
- Document what we’ve done and try to move it out into the world.
So far so good; I’ll spend most of my time describing the things we’re building, and bring lots of samples to show you.