Every year, the large LHC collaborations such as the ATLAS Experiment organize an internal overview session that is attended by the entire collaboration spanning 243 institutes from 41 countries, including South Africa.
Ryan Mckenzie, a postgraduate student in the Institute for Collider Particle Physics (ICPP) at Wits, was chosen to undertake the roles of deputy run-coordinator and then run-coordinator of the ATLAS Hadronic Tile calorimeter. The roles span 8 months from 1 September 2022 up until the 30th of April 2023 and encompass the control and management of the entire sub-detector including the co-ordination of over one hundred physicists, engineers and technicians. The importance of this role cannot be underestimated as ATLAS will be undertaking RUN-III data taking during Ryan’s tenure.
Edward Nkadimeng, an ICPP-researcher, was appointed by the management of the Tile Calorimeter of the ATLAS experiment at CERN to lead the team for the LVPS project. Edward leads a community of physicists and engineers from the US and Europe. This international team will be delivering on critical electronics for the upgrade of the Tile Calorimeter of the ATLAS detector.
The two Wits University researchers were also invited to chair sessions in the 2021 and 2022 cycles of the ATLAS collaboration Week themed “Getting Ready for Run 3”. The collider has started up its proton beams again at unprecedented energy levels after going through a three-year shutdown for maintenance and upgrades.
“We are really proud that young South African scientists have grown to become leaders of our global community,” says Bruce Mellado, Director of the ICPP and senior researcher at iThemba LABS.
