Richmond students visit JLab

Faculty member Jerry Gilfoyle brought five students from Richmond to tour the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) in Newport News, VA this summer. Dr. Gilfoyle does nuclear physics research research at JLab using one of the large particle detectors to detect the debris from collisions of high-energy electrons (from the one-mile-around accelerator) with atomic nuclei. The picture shows the students from left Kristen Gell, Peter Humby from the University of Surrey, Nate Watwood, Omair Alam, and Haonan Liu.  The group spent the day walking through tunnels, stepping over beam lines, and climbing to the top of the three-story high CLAS12 detector that is under construction.

Richmond students standing in the middle of the structural frame holding the CLAS12 detector. The large panels behind them are time-of-flight detectors making up one layer of the device.