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Monday, Sept. 12, 2016
Courtesy DuneScience.org
NIU joins DUNE project Samantha Malone Staff writer
DeKALB | Dan Boyden, third year physics graduate, is hoping to be sent to Switzerland to work hands-on for DUNE, an international particle experiment including more than 140 labs and universities across 27 countries. DUNE, which stands for Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, aims to reveal things about the universe, like why the world has more matter than antimatter. NIU was asked to join the project which is being led by Associate Physics Professor Vishnu Zutshi and Physics Professor Michael Eads.
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So what the DUNE project is all about is studying neutrinos. Neutrinos are one of the particles that make everything up, and we’re just trying to better understand how neutrinos work.” Michael Eads Physics Professor
Boyden got involved in the experiment when a friend told him that his professor was looking for help on the project. Boyden said he saw the project as a great opportunity to network and get hands-on experience. Networking is vital in his field, and working on DUNE provides the opportunity to connect with many people, Boyden said. Zutshi and Eads approached DUNE and were later asked to
join the experiment as a result of Zutshi’s knowledge on the topics the experiment explores, like photon detectors. “The point to make is this is a new effort here at NIU,” Eads said. “We’re hoping to ramp this up and get more people involved in the near future.” The DUNE project hopes to measure the properties of neutrinos, a nearly neutral fundamental particle of the universe, as they travel. There are three types of neutrinos, and as they travel, they can change from one type to another. This process is called oscillation, Physics Professor David Hedin said. NIU’s task for DUNE is to build and test the photon detector systems that will measure the neutrino oscillations as they travel. Boyden was assigned the task of testing these systems, which he said were essentially light detectors. “I’m performing the tests that are needed for NIU to perform their part,” Boyden said. “Right now, we’ve been mostly just measuring background noise and things like that associated with electronics.” While Boyden is the only student involved in the project, Eads said he hopes to provide opportunities for more graduate and undergraduate physics students in the future. The photon detectors Boyden is working with will tell scientists on the DUNE team when a neutrino changes, which could allow them to determine the probability of such action, Eads
Samantha Malone | Northern Star
Physics Professor Michael Eads (left) and third year graduate student Dan Boyden (right) look over an experiment on Sept. 7 in a La Tourette Hall lab.
said. Determining that probability could tell scientists why the universe has more matter than antimatter, which allows people to exist, Hedin said. “We still have a big question mark about what caused the matter-antimatter difference,” Hedin said. “The guess right now is that the matter-antimatter difference in our universe is in the type of particles like electrons and neutrinos.” Hedin, Eads and Zutshi work at Fermilab as visiting scientists. Fermilab and NIU have a partnership that Hedin said gives students and faculty great opportunities. Eads said the close proximity NIU has to Fermilab enhances that. Fermilab will house the proton accelerator and produce the neutrinos that will be measured in the DUNE experiment. “So what the DUNE project is all about is studying neutrinos,”
Eads said. “Neutrinos are one of the particles that make everything up, and we’re just trying to better understand how neutrinos work and what their properties are.” DUNE plans to do this by using the world’s largest neutrino beam to shoot the neutrinos from Fermilab, Outer Ring Road, located in Batavia, to Sanford Underground Research Lab in Lead, South Dakota. As the neutrinos travel underground, DUNE will be monitoring their properties and looking for a change in the type of neutrino. Because of the massive scale of the project, the first beam is not expected to be launched until 2026, but NIU has already begun work on its contributions. “It’s one of those fun research things where it’s not immediately clear how useful it’s [going to] be,” Eads said. “But if you understand the universe better, then it has to be good for something.”
TV series analyzed in bibliography
Professor publishes with Oxford Press Sanah Baig Staff writer
DeKALB | “Game of Thrones” may be over for the season, but Media Studies Professor Jeffrey Chown is working to publish a bibliography based on the series by next year. Chown, who teaches TV theory and criticism classes that revolve around a popular TV show, will list scholarly work and material Jeffrey Chown about topics Media Studies Professor in “Game of Thrones” such as gender and sexuality in the bibliography. After publishing a bibliography with Oxford Press last year about popular Hollywood Screenwriter
Francis Coppola, Chown hopes to publish the bibliography about “Game of Thrones” on Jan. 15, 2017. Chown taught a graduate course about “Game of Thrones” during the spring 2016 semester, which helped inspire the bibliography and led to the creation of ScholarsOfTheThrone.com. The website is a collection of 13 graduate student blogs, bibliographical annotations and other materials used to study the show, according to the website. “We did a lot of research on the bibliography and about ‘Game of Thrones’ and all those students did blog [about it],” Chown said. “I’m really excited about [getting it published].” Chown said he wants his students to understand how TV has grown into a more prominent art form. “I was interested in how TV has changed into what I call the long form,” Chown said. “It’s more like
a novel now. Television is a more looking for and how they should apserious art form now. It used to be a proach writing a regular column on great American wasteland, now it’s a television show.” the more dominant form.” Student Aymee Borns, who took Chown’s “Game of Thrones” course, stated she enjoyed the project. I was interested in how “While I have seen every episode of TV has changed into what HBO’s hit series Game of Thrones at I call the long form. It’s least one time through, I am beyond more like a novel now.” excited to share the experience of critJeffrey Chown ically examining the series,” Borns Media Studies Professor said in a blog post. Chown said he teaches about the A typical day in Chown’s class importance of TV show analysis consists of students creating blogs given that TV is rising as a dominant about the TV show chosen that se- art form. mester, creating a product that is “We used to think of film as besimilar to a TV column. ing the most important art form,” “[In] the class I’m teaching right Chown said. “I think, in a lot of ways, now, the students are learning how television has replaced it, and I’m just to blog about television [show “The interested in studying what makes Wire”],” Chown said. “[In] the first up that new art form. I remain cucouple of classes, we’ve been con- rious and excited about trying new cerned with getting them to set that things. I’m thinking about maybe up and what kind of product we’re doing Showtime next semester.”
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Director starts in Housing Services Julia Martinez Staff writer
DeKALB | Even after nine years of experience with Housing and Residential Services, Deborah Gettemy was left speechless when offered the position of department director. After Patricia A.R. Martinez, former Housing and Residential Services director, left the position, Gettemy was chosen to fill the spot. Gettemy started working as a housing complex coordinator nine years ago, and in 2012, she was promoted to associate director for residential communities. Overall, she has thirteen years of experience in student affairs at NIU.
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I found out our previous director was leaving, and I was so nervous about what was going to happen with that position. Then I was offered the role, which I was not expecting, so I was really excited.” Deborah Gettemy Director of Housing and Residential Services
Gettemy reports to Vice President of Student Affairs Kelly Wesener-Michael, who said the position requires someone who has good judgment and will be committed to the students. “I was looking for someone with outstanding experience in terms of being professional and the willingness to empower students and staff,” Wesener-Michael said. “We believe in Debbie’s talent and chose her for the position.” Gettemy was asked to become the director after Martinez was offered an opportunity to become the assistant vice president of University of Alabama, Gettemy said. “I found out our previous director was leaving, and I was so nervous about what was going to happen with that position,” Gettemy said. “Then I was offered the role, which I was not expecting, so I was really excited.” One of her biggest goals is to look at the department’s structure to make sure it has the right organization and the right people in each position, Gettemy said. Gettemy said what she wants most is for the students to feel safe and comfortable in the residential halls. “Along with feeling safe, I want students to know they are heard,” Gettemy said. “If students have any issues, I want them to know they can come speak to our staff and we will attend to them.” Sophomore communicative disorders major Jennifer Calderon said she chose to live in the residence halls for her second year because that is where she feels safe. “I just want to feel safe more than anything on campus,” Calderon said. “I know the resident halls will be in good hands this year and will only continue to become better.”