Image: The planned location of the Future Circular Collider at CERN. Credit: CERN. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that the entire field of particle physics is less than 130 years old. I pick as a starting point the date that we discovered our first fundamental particle: the electron (discovered in 1897 by J. J. Thompson).Continue reading “High Energy Physics is a generational project “
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Five things we learned about fundamental particle physics in 2025
Image: Louie preaching to the converted (during a visit of his masters students to ALICE experiment at CERN in December 2025). Credit: Adrien Auriol. I would like to dedicate this post to the memory of Deepak Kar, who passed away tragically last week after a short illness. We co-organised the CHACAL school together, and IContinue reading “Five things we learned about fundamental particle physics in 2025”
What it takes to build a detector
Image: the High Granularity Timing Detector and where it will fit within ATLAS. (Credit: ATLAS collaboration) Last week, I travelled to Lyon to give an overview of the status of the ATLAS High Granularity Timing Detector (HGTD) upgrade project for the leaders of the IN2P3 (the French particle and nuclear physics institute). For each majorContinue reading “What it takes to build a detector”
“Particle Physics for Babies” reaches new heights!
A mountain ascent, a new print run, and new translations! Image Credit: Alexis HELLAL. “Particle Physics for Babies” at the summit of Gran Paradiso, at over 4000m of altitude. I often joke with students that writing “Particle Physics for Babies” was a high-point of my career. As you can see from the cover photo, someContinue reading ““Particle Physics for Babies” reaches new heights!”
Ooooh, we’re halfway there…!
NB: All opinions expressed below are my own, not necessarily those of the ATLAS collaboration! The LHC started physics-quality collisions in 2009. It is currently due to operate until 2041. The halfway point of its 32-year lifespan is right now: 2025. In other words, we are (already!) halfway through the LHC’s lifespan. So we haveContinue reading “Ooooh, we’re halfway there…!”
They said the PhD would be the last formal exam I would ever do: they were wrong.
In my last post I talked about PhD defences and how they vary from country to country. Sometimes the PhD defence is described as the last formal exam you’ll ever take, because it’s the highest academic qualification you can have. Well, turns out that’s true in many countries, but not all. In France, Germany andContinue reading “They said the PhD would be the last formal exam I would ever do: they were wrong.”
PhD defences at home and abroad
Last week I was back at Imperial college High Energy Physics department, where I spent 3.5 years working on my PhD. But this time, I was back as an external examiner for a PhD viva. It was a very validating experience to know that 8 years after my own PhD defence, I am now enoughContinue reading “PhD defences at home and abroad”
A decade of progress in searches
I recently had the pleasure to give an overview talk at the 15th Long-Lived Particle workshop, held in Spain in Valencia (although unfortunately I was not able to be there physically myself). It was a great pleasure because until recently, I was a member of the organising committee for that workshop, which has grown fromContinue reading “A decade of progress in searches”
Analysis Preservation: sharing best practice between experiments
Today I had the pleasure of giving a talk in the general meeting of the LHCb collaboration — something which is unusual for a member of the ATLAS collaboration! Large scientific collaborations need to have private spaces where they can discuss away from the scrutiny of other experimentalists and theorists. There are some things whichContinue reading “Analysis Preservation: sharing best practice between experiments”
Winning 0.008% of the Breakthrough prize in fundamental physics
On Sunday, I woke to discover that I had won a major award: the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. Well, not me personally, but the four main experimental collaborations of the Large Hadron Collider: ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb. Together, that’s about 13,500 people, of which I represent about 0.008%. Still, my name is onContinue reading “Winning 0.008% of the Breakthrough prize in fundamental physics”
Louie D. Corpe 