The last hundred years have been truly incredible.
Advances in science and technology have revolutionized
our world.
We can cure deadly diseases, and humans have
walked on the Moon.
These successes have been made possible because
researchers have asked and answered scientific
questions.
The deepest scientific questions ever asked-
ones that explore the deepest laws of nature-
were worked out in the past century at a handful
of laboratories sprinkled across the globe.
These facilities are all amazing places, but
one of them is having a special year.
And why is this a special year?
It’s because it’s Fermilab’s 50th anniversary!
The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory,
or Fermilab for short, is America’s leading
particle physics laboratory.
It all started on June 15, 1967, when the
original Fermilab employees reported to the
office for the first time.
With that humble start, Fermilab has become
one of the most influential laboratories on
the planet.
Located about forty miles west of Chicago,
it sits on 6,800 acres of land.
It hosted the Tevatron, the world’s most
powerful particle accelerator for about a
quarter century.
Data taken using the Fermilab accelerator
complex has resulted in over twenty five thousand
papers and over two thousand Ph.D. theses,
including mine.
Important parts of the Standard Model were
discovered at Fermilab, including the top
and bottom quark, and the tau neutrino.
And that’s just Fermilab’s first half
century.
While the Tevatron ceased operations in 2011,
the research didn’t just stop.
In fact, Fermilab’s current program may
well be richer and more diverse than ever.
Fermilab is playing a crucial role in the
search for dark energy and dark matter, two
substances that make up 95% of the matter
and energy in the universe.
Fermilab employs more scientists working on
the CERN Large Hadron Collider than any institution
other than CERN itself.
A Fermilab scientist is even leading the CMS
experiment, a group of 3,000 scientists who
co-discovered the Higgs boson.
And, if that weren’t enough, Fermilab is
also producing the most intense beam of neutrinos
ever made, with plans to increase the intensity
even more.
There are lots of neutrino experiments currently
underway at Fermilab, but the future is the
DUNE experiment, short for Deep Underground
Neutrino Experiment, and it will dominate
the neutrino research world for the next few
decades.
Turning fifty might herald middle age for
a person, but for a particle physics laboratory,
that’s just getting started.
The second half-century will be even more
exciting than the first and the young scientists
here with me will be the ones to make it all
happen.
So please join with me and wish Fermilab a
happy fiftieth birthday.
Happy Birthday, Fermilab!
