National Science Foundation RII Track-1 Project:Expanding Research, Education and Innovation in South Dakota
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4th Conference on Science at SURF
May 11, 2022 • 8:00 am - May 13, 2022 • 5:00 pm
South Dakota Mines is hosting the fourth Conference on Science at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, which will cover all aspects of research at SURF. The conference will take place May 11-13 (Wednesday-Friday) in the Electrical Engineering and Physics (EEP) building on campus at Mines.
Scientists from around the world are conducting the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) dark matter search, the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR project, CASPAR, SIGMA-V, and other experiments in geology, astrophysics, biology, and engineering. The onsite work on the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) has just started.
Scientific areas of discussion include: Neutrino Oscillations, Proton Decay, Nuclear Astrophysics, Dark Matter, Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay, Materials Science for Nuclear and Particle Physics, Geology, and Astrobiology and Life in Extreme Environments.
The Conference Chair is David Martinez Caicedo of South Dakota Mines.
The conference, generally held every two years but postponed in 2021 due to COVID, brings together researchers from around the world who are focusing on the array of science happening in the underground lab. This year about 125 researchers and students are expected to attend.
“The last two years have been very challenging for everyone and having the opportunity to organize the conference in-person is very exciting,” says David Martinez Caicedo, Ph.D., assistant professor of Physics and Mines and a conference organizer. “We will do our best to make the conference a great space for communication of the latest scientific results of the community doing underground science research. We are also very happy to know that we will count with a strong participation of a diverse group of young researchers.”
“It is great to see so many researchers coming to Rapid City. After more than two years of the pandemic we are finally discussing science again in person,” says Frank Strieder, Ph.D., associate professor of physics at South Dakota Mines and the leader of the CASPAR Experiment at SURF.